Animorphs: The Untold Stories 2: Mr President, We Need To Talk
by HephaestusBuilds
Summary: The Untold Stories#2. My AU story where four years into the war Jake quits the team after David kills Cassie and Tom. The Ellimist brings Cassie back and she becomes pregnant. The Yeerks forget their secret invasion policy and attack the Earth outright. The Animorphs try to get Jake back and try to get the help of the government to stop the Yeerks. T for language/themes. Pls R&R
1. Chapter 1: Tobias: A Meeting Of Allies

Animorphs: The Untold Stories #2: Mr. President, We Need To Talk

By HephaestusBuilds

(Author's Note)

I don't own anything, unfortunately. This is story number two in this series, so please read the first story so that you won't be confused.

Recap: David returned with the help of Crayak in order to kill one of the Animorphs. David killed Cassie and Tom. Then Jake killed David in revenge. The Ellimist brought Cassie back to life and Jake quit the team. Later Jake becomes drunk and sleeps with Cassie which results in her becoming pregnant.

Summary for new story: Tobias leads the team as the Yeerks forget their hidden invasion plan and attempt to conquer the planet in one final battle. The Animorphs head for Washington to get the help of the government in order to fight the Yeerks.

Please, leave a comment, favorite and/or PM me with any feedback.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 1: Tobias: A Meeting Of Allies

My name is Tobias and I am the new leader of the Animorphs. It has been seven months since David returned and captured all of us. It has also been seven months since Jake quit the team. Jake took Tom and Cassie's death by David harder than any of us. Jake also killed David with his own hands in anger and revenge. But while the Ellimist had brought Cassie back to life he could not bring Tom back as well, so Jake has remained depressed and distant. Jake quit the team saying that he could not order us, his friends, to their deaths anymore. In the meantime I've been told by Rachel and then later by Cassie herself that Jake and Cassie apparently slept together which resulted in Cassie becoming pregnant. Which of course means that she can't morph. We don't know exactly what would happen to her or her child if she morphed but Ax suggested that we don't try to find out. So now with Cassie pregnant and out of commission and Jake refusing to rejoin the team we are down two members of our already small army.

The others, meaning Rachel, Macro and Cassie have all moved on to their senior year of high school. Jake hadn't passed his junior year, since he had stopped going to school after Tom died and he later dropped out completely. A few months ago Jake had started making progress on turning his life around. According to Cassie he's almost stopped drinking completely but is still having trouble with drugs. She's been trying to get him to do rehab but he refuses to go.

Anyway, with Jake off the team we had to pick a new leader and start fighting the Yeerks again before they got the upperhand. I was chosen almost unanimously, since Ax had refused to vote for anyone besides Jake and with Rachel voting for herself. I had known that I would have been voted as the new leader, everyone knew, including Rachel. However Rachel did not want me to be the leader, not even close, she wanted to be the new leader.

Saying that I was nervous beyond belief to be leader is a complete understatement. I was scared out of my life when I accepted the duty. We had all seen what the burdens of leadership had done to Jake over the past four years, it had aged him internally, it had made him grow cold and distant. While he refused to talk or to even show it we all knew that it was destroying him inside. This is why Rachel was so against me becoming the new leader, she was worried for me. Worried that at the end of this war that I'd end up like Jake, a distant alcoholic and drug user who can't go through a day without breaking down or going into a blind fit of rage.

In the meantime, the Yeerks had been able to build a new Kandrona in the city next to ours. Strengthening their numbers even more. With only Rachel, Marco, Ax and myself being able to fight the Yeerks they have grown more powerful then they have ever been. According to Erek the Chee, the number of Yeerks on Earth has skyrocketed over the past few months. He estimates that around ten thousand Hostless Yeerk are arriving each day now, we fear that the Yeerks are getting ready to plan a full out attack on the Earth and that they will be forgetting their secret invasion. Erek says that Visser Three has also brought several new alien species and ships to Earth as well. Including a new type of long-range Dracon Beam that has started to been mounted to their ships and facilities.

I fear that without Jake and Cassie that the Yeerks will soon overpower us and take this planet for their own. We have all given up on being saved by the Andalite's for months now. The Yeerks had started attacking the Andalite Home world and have crippled their fleet. We were quickly contacted by Lirem-Arrepoth-Terrouss, the arrogant Andalite Prince that ordered Ax to lie about who gave us the morphing cube, who told us the situation on the Andalite Home world and that they would be unable to send their main fleet to Earth until the Yeerks have been kicked off their planet. So we are now on our own.

Xxxxx

"So basically, what you're saying is, unless we can get ourselves a very large army rather quickly, the Earth is screwed?" Marco asked, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head.

We, Jake excluded, were all sitting in Cassie's barn at two thirty in the morning trying to decide what to do about the Yeerks. The reason why we were here so late is because we didn't want Cassie's parents walking in on us, considering that we have a few 'people' here who we didn't want her parents to see. Those 'people' included the Animorphs, meaning myself, Rachel, Cassie, Marco and Ax. Toby Hamee and a few other free Hork-Bajir. Erek and several other Chee in their metallic, doglike forms. And finally a couple members of the Yeerk Peace Movement, which were in Human, Hork-Bajir and Taxxon Hosts. So you can see why we didn't want anyone stumbling into this meeting. We had all gathered to come up with a plan to take out the Yeerks. Knowing that the end of the war was soon approaching we had all decided to fight together to defeat the Yeerks, but there was just one major problem.

"That may be correct, Marco." Erek said in his unholorgamed form. "The truth is that we just do not have the numbers nor firepower to take on the Yeerks head on."

"Well how many people do we have altogether? Maybe we can take down one station or compound at a time." Cassie asked from her chair a few feet away.

I looked to Toby and nodded my head. "Currently, the number of adult Hork-Bajir in fighting condition in the Valley is just over two hundred. If needed we could add up to fifty young and old Hork-Bajir at the most, but I would rather not send them into battle as well." Toby explained.

"I understand, Toby" I said in human morph. I was in human morph because we were going over maps and papers, meaning that I needed hands for this meeting. "I don't want to force any more Hork-Bajir to fight than we have to."

I turned my head to Erek. "What about the Chee?"

Erek looked to the Chee next to him then back to me. "We have a total of thirtythree Chee here. However, as you all know, we Chee cannot fight, we will only be able to help gather information and fly you in the ships."

"Don't sell yourself short, Erek. The Chee have been a huge help to us over the years. Without the information provided by you we would've died years ago."

I then turned my head to Mr. Tidwell, a member and the representative of the Yeerk Peace Movement for this meeting, and also a teacher at my old school.

"Well, at the moment the total number of Yeerks in the YPM is almost two thousand."

"That's great." Rachel spoke, standing up and holding her fist in the air. "With two thousand Yeerks we can take out the two Kandronas as least. Without them Visser Three will be unable to keep most of his Yeerks alive by bringing them up to the poolship."

"Unfortunately, Rachel," Mr. Tidwell started. "Our members are spread throughout the country and several poolships. With all the new Yeerks arriving we have started to being sent around the world as well."

"Then how many Yeerks do you have here?" Marco asked.

"Around four hundred. However most of those Yeerks are in Human Hosts, meaning that in a fight, they won't be very useful."

"So what do we do then?" Marco asked. "We have at most six hundred "people" and a few stolen Bug Fighters to take on the Yeerks, who have numbers in the hundreds of thousands at least. How in hell are we supposed to fight them with just a few hundred Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, Humans, and the four of us?"

"Five of us." Casie corrected him.

Marco turned to Cassie and pointed his finger to her stomach. "No offense, Cassie, but with you being knocked up and all you can't really do anything."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Rachel started. "But Marco's right, Cassie. We've been over this, with you being seven months pregnant and all you can't fight. We won't allow you to put yourself or your baby in danger."

Cassie placed her hand on her inflated stomach and smiled. "I wasn't talking about me, I know that I can't fight now, but Jake can. Jake'll-" Rachel broke her off.

"Jake'll what?" Rachel demanded, her voice growing angry and harsh. "Jake's gone, Cassie, he quit, remember? Jake won't help us anymore, you should just forget about him and focus on the task at hand, we need to figure out a way to kick Yeerk ass before they completely take over the planet."

"You're wrong, Rachel. Jake will come back soon, we just need to tell him what's going on, then maybe he'll understand that we need him."

"We don't need him," Rachel spat. "We never needed him, Tobias is doing just fine leading us as is."

[How dare you, Rachel.] Ax spoke up for the first time during the meeting. He has been a little depressed since Jake's leaving. I guess we all have, even in we don't want to admit it. [Prince Jake has saved our lives countless times over, we all owe him an unpayable debt.]

"I don't owe him anything, Ax, and neither do you. Jake wasn't as great as you'd like to believe."

At this point the tension in the room was visible and Toby, Erek and the others were all just staring and staying quiet, trying not to get in the middle of an argument between Rachel and Ax.

"That's enough, Rachel." I said sternly as I raised the papers in my hands. We have more important things to do then listen to you disrespect Jake like that and waste our time. Sit back down, we have work to do."

Rachel reluctantly sat back down, cursing under her breath as she did. Great, I thought, I'm going to definitely hear about this later, she's not going to be happy about this. Just another thing that I have to worry about, on top of the million other things I have to worry about.

I let out a sigh as I rubbed my temple, turning to Cassie. "Cassie?" I asked. "Not that I don't want to believe it, but do you really think that you can talk Jake into returning to the team and being leader again? Because the last I heard he still refuses to morph, and to really talk to us at all. You're the only one who he talks to. Do you think you can do it?"

Cassie looked from Rachel to me and smiled. "I do." She said without hesitation.

"Good, because we'll need him." I sat back down and shuffled the papers in my hands. "Anyway, back to business. Ax, Erek, do you two think that you can get those Bug Fighters up and running?"

Ax looked to Erek and Erek nodded. "Yes, I think we'll be able to manage getting them working by the end of next month."

"Next month?" Marco asked. "It's only five Bug Fighters that aren't even in that bad of conditions, why that long?"

"Do you have any idea how hard it it to work on and fix Yeerk technology with our limited Chee technology and your primitive human technology and tools?" Erek asked. Marco just had a blank stare. "I didn't think so."

"That's good, we'll need those ships for air support and to get us to and from where ever we need to go."

I reread over the numbers of new Yeerks and ships that Erik managed to get us. "If no one has anything else to add then we are done here, the Hork-Bajir need to get to their Valley before sunrise and the Yeerks in the YPM need to get back before anyone notices that they're missing. We'll get ahold of you if anything comes up."

Everyone started to leave as Toby came up to me and Cassie. "Tobias, Cassie, if you have any trouble talking Jake into returning to us then I have an idea on how to help him."

Cassie and I looked at each other for a few seconds. "What's that, Toby?"

"Bring him to our Valley if he refuses to rejoin you, I'll take care of it." Without another word she and her fellow Hork-Bajir stepped out the door and into the darkness.

"I wish she'd be more specific." Cassie said. "I've tried almost everything I could think of in order to snap Jake back into reality and to show him that we need him." Cassie's eyes began to tear up.

"Don't worry, Cassie. You're right, he'll be back soon."

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

(Author's Note)

Thank you all for reading this first chapter of my new story. If you're confused about what's going on in it then I suggest that you read the first story, #1 The Revenge to figure out what's going on. Anyway, please, let me know how you guys liked this chapter. Leave a comment or PM me if you have any comments, ideas, find any typos or anything. I will be releasing a new chapter every Friday/Saturday so watch for those.

Please let me know if this story should be more serious with some moments of humor or whatever.

If you guys are interested then I have a short One-Shot about Marco insulting Jake about his 'junk'. It's rated M for language, sexual themes and suggestive themes just to let you know.


	2. Chapter 2: Cassie: Our Fearless Leader

Chapter 2: Cassie: Our Fearless Leader

"So, uh, what exactly is the plan here?" Marco asked. "What are we going to do, just storm in there, overpower him, knock him out with this bat and drag his unconscious body to the woods?" He waved the wooden bat in his hands in a circle and made a little thud sound with his mouth.

"Sounds good to me, he could really use a good hit to the head." Rachel muttered under her breath.

"We're not hitting anyone in the head with a bat, especially not him. You could hurt him." I commented.

"Cassie," Marco sighed. "That's basically the whole point of the baseball bat, to knock him out, him getting hurt is unavoidable." Marco said matter of factly.

"Why did you even bring that bat? Knocking him out wasn't ever a part of the plan." I asked Marco as I tried to grab the bat from his hands but he dodged nimbly away.

"Nice try, Cassie." Marco mocked. "But in your condition you can't dream of catching me."

"Condition?" I asked, sounding a little offended. "Marco, I don't have a condition, I'm just pregnant."

"Call it what you like, Cassie, but there's no way in hell you can stop me from knocking him out with this bat, I mean, I would've brought it all the way here for nothing. And," he said in a really annoying voice. "If you don't let me hit him then I'll just give the bat to Rachel, she'd be more than happy to whack him over the head with it a few times."

"You got that right, Marco." Rachel added. "Now can we just do this already? I have things to do today."

"No one is hitting anyone with a bat." Tobias groaned angrily as he grabbed the bat from Marco. "Why did you even bring it? I told you not to."

"Because, bird boy, I can do whatever I want, we are all adults here, you can't order me around anymore."

"Uh, Marco, last time I checked _you_ were the only one of us that is still seventeen." Rachel gave him a little mocking grin.

"That, my temperamental friend, is just a technicality. I mean, with all that we've-" Rachel cut him off by grabbing his shirt collar.

"What did you call me?" Rachel demanded.

"This," Marco said matter of factly. "Is what I'm talking about."

"Rachel then stepped closer to him and grabbed his arm with her other hand. Marco looked a little scared. "Hey, Tobias, old buddy, o' pal, o' friend of mine."

"What do you want, Marco?" Tobias asked from a few feet away, he was looking at the house we were standing in front of, the only one of us trying to figure out what we were going to do.

"How about doing an old friend a favor and pulling your psycho girlfriend off me?" His eyes then brightened. "Unless, of course, she wants to stay on me like this. I mean, I'm not complaining about having Rachel climb over me like this. In another situation this-" Marco stopped short of what would have been his funeral as Rachel raised her fist to his face.

"That's enough, _both_ of you." Tobias said sternly with authority in his voice. "We need to figure out how we're going to get him out of his house and to the woods."

Rachel pulled away from Marco as he breathed a sigh of relief and said; "That's why I brought the bat, but apparently you two don't approve."

"I have an idea, why don't we act like normal people and just walk up to the door, knock, have his parents let us in and just go talk to him?"

"Are you suicidal, Cassie?" Marco asked as if I were crazy. "He'll kill us, well, not you of course, but he'd definitely kill us."

"You're over reacting, Marco. He won't kill you, he'd never do that." I said with a smile.

"He'll just refuse to see you altogether, that's more his speed." Rachel said in a bitter tone.

The whole group was silent for a few seconds before Tobias spoke up. "Cassie, do you really think it's a good idea for us all to be here? He might take it as we're ganging up on him. Maybe it's better for you to talk to him alone."

"No, Tobias. He needs to see that we are _all_ here for him and that we need him. Besides, I already told him that I was going to bring you today."

"You told him that you'd be bringing just me, not the whole group? Why?"

"Yeah, I thought that telling him that everyone was coming over that he'd get nervous and wouldn't let us all in."

"Cassie," Tobias asked. "Did he tell you why he finally is now letting us see him? I mean, we haven't all seen him in almost six months."

I smiled. "He said that he is ready to talk to more people than just me. He's making really good progress. For example, the other day he let me take him out to lunch. We had a really-" Rachel broke me off.

"That's enough, Cassie." Rachel said a little angrily. "Can we just do this already? I really do have things to do today."

"Yeah, you're right." I looked to everyone. "Are we all ready to go in?"

"Been ready." Rachel mumbled.

"I think that now's as good a time as ever." Tobias said.

"I am. But one question first." Marco said as he raised his hand.

"What is it, Marco?" Tobias asked, sounding a little done with him already.

"So what does he look like?" Marco asked as if it were the most serious thing he had ever said.

I looked to Tobias, we were both puzzled. "Marco," I started. "What do you mean? You know exactly what he looks like."

"Well six months _is_ a long time. I mean, has he been bathing and cutting his hair? Does he have long hair and a beard? Are his nails like six inches long or something?"

"Marco." Tobias said, coming to his defense. "Don't say things like that."

"Actually," I said. "He looks about the same, I've been making him keep up his appearance."

"Can we just go in already?" Rachel asked.

"Yes." Tobias said, as he turned towards the door. "Enough stalling, let's go see our fearless leader."

We all marched side by side to the door boldly when they all froze.

"So," Marco asked. "Who's gonna knock?"

Everyone looked at each other then to me. "Fine." I said as I knocked on the door. "You're all over reacting, it's not like he's going to be unhappy to see you."

We waited at the door for a few seconds for Jake's parents to open the door but they didn't.

"That's weird," I said. "Normally Jean opens the door as soon as I knock."

"Jean?" Marco asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Jean." I said confused. "What, don't you know the name of your best friends mom?"

"Oh, I know her name." Marco said as he knocked on the door. "I just call her Jake's mom."

"Really, Marco, Jake's mom?" Rachel asked, sounding disappointed.

"What's wrong with that? And besides, that not the point here."

"You mean that you actually have a point? Who knew." Rachel said with a grin.

"That hurts, Xena, it really does. My point is that aren't you calling her the wrong name by calling her Jean?"

"What are you talking about, Marco?" Tobias asked. "We all know that his mom's name is Jean. You just admitted it yourself."

"I'm not saying that her name isn't Jean, pay attention, bird boy." He paused as he knocked again. "I'm saying that Cassie is calling her by the wrong name by calling her Jean."

Now we all just stopped and stared at Marco. "You're making even less sense than usual, Marco." Tobias added.

"Then I'll ask, Marco, if I shouldn't be calling her Jean, which, in fact is her name, then what should I be calling her?"

Just as Marco opened his mouth to answer the front door swung open and Jake's mom, also known as Jean, appeared in the doorway.

We all turned to Jean as Marco answered my question, "Mom." He said as he turned to see Jean looking at him with confusion.

Rachel sighed and did a small facepalm. "That's Marco for you, always opening his mouth at the wrong time."

Jean looked at all of us to Marco. "Uh, no, Marco. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not your mother, you're far too short and obnoxious to be mine." She said with a smile as we all, except Marco of course, laughed. "I was in the backyard, couldn't hear you knock. Cassie, it's really good to see you." She paused as she carefully hugged me from the side. "Everytime I see you you surprise me, you look ready to have your baby any day now."

I smiled as she let go. "I still have two months, and besides, I'm not ready to be a mom yet."

"You never are." Jean said with a smile. "Believe me."

"Anyway, back to what's important, me. I see where Jake gets his sense of humor." Marco said as he pointed his thumb to Jean. "And it explains a lot."

"Be quiet, Marco, the adults are talking." Rachel said as she pushed him aside. She looked to Jean. "Cassie brought us here to talk to Jake, if that's okay with you, of course."

Jean looked shocked. "If it's okay with me? Of course it's okay with me. After all of these months I'm just kind of surprised that you're all here. But not you Marco, you're like a cockroach, we never could get rid of you." She said with a smile.

"Hilarious, truly, truly hilarious." Marco sighed.

"Anyway," I sighed. "I told Jake that I'd be bringing just Tobias, so the others are a surprise. Is he home?"

Jean smiled. "Yeah, he's home, it's not like he goes anywhere without you."

"Awe," Marco muttered. "Isn't that sweet?"

"Actually," I said trying to ignore Marco. "I'm hoping that Jake would like to go on a walk with us. So that everyone can catch up."

"I think that's a wonderful idea. He needs to start getting out of the house and interacting with people more, it would really help him." Jean gestured inside as we walked into the house.

"Go ahead and go up to his room, Cassie, but try not to overwhelm him. I'm talking about you, Marco. I'll be outside in the garden if you need me."

"Thanks, Jean." I said as we started up the stairs.

"No, Cassie, thank you for everything you've done for Jake." She said as she turned and walked away.

I smiled to myself and continued up the stairs. We arrived at Jake's door and again, everyone froze.

"You guys are still afraid?" I asked. "Fine. I'll knock, but let me do the talking, okay?"

"Works for me." Marco added.

I knocked on the door like I do every time, softly yet boldly. I knock the same way every time to let him know that it is me.

From behind the door we could hear footsteps and the sound of furniture being moved around. It happens the same way every time, I thought. I always knock the same way, then from behind the door I hear him moving his desk and chairs aside so that we can sit. It's like clockwork.

"Can I come in, Jake?" I asked as nicely as I could. "I have Tobias with me, remember, I told you that I was going to bring him? He really wants to see how you're doing."

I really hate that I have to talk to him like this, I thought. I'm having to treat him like a child. For months he barely ate anything, he lost so much weight, now when I come over every week I have to check and make sure that he's eating. A few months ago, on Tom's birthday Jake temporarily relapsed like he never had before. He refused to eat, sleep, go outside, talk or bathe. His mom had to call me over to help her with him. I had to skip school for three weeks because I couldn't leave his side, he couldn't do anything without me. That's when it started, I guess, I thought. When I started treating him like a child. If I didn't feed him myself he wouldn't eat. I had to stay by his side all night in order for him to sleep. If I didn't go out with him he refused to leave the house. It took two weeks to get him to be able to take a shower, since he would start breaking down and hyperventilating if I wasn't with him at all times. At first he asked if I would stay in the bathroom with him when he took a shower, he reassured me that he'd have the shower curtains covering him, but I said that it would be best for me to wait outside. He of course was able to get past Tom's death and was able to work back up to where he was before. Now he's able to take care of himself again without me, or his mom looking after him.

"Tobias?" Jake asked from behind the door. There was the sound of worry and happiness in his voice.

"Hey, Jake." Tobias said, copying my tone of voice. "It's me. It's really good to hear your voice after all this time. How are you?"

For a second I was worried that Jake wouldn't open the door and wouldn't talk to Tobias. But as soon as those thoughts entered my mind he opened the door.

"I'm doing good, Tobias. Thanks for co-" Then he went silent when the door fully opened and he saw that Marco and Rachel were also there.

Jake froze in the doorway, wearing a look that I have seen far too many times. His stoic look. His emotionless, uncaring, inhuman look. He just stared at Rachel for a few seconds, then looked to Marco.

"Why are you two here?" He asked, emotionless. "I didn't ask you to come."

I was about to open my mouth when Marco spoke up; "Like I need an invitation to visit my best bud. Come on, Jake." He said with a big Marco smile. "Tell me that you aren't happy to see me, I'll wait." He paused for half a second. "Because you can bet that I'm happy as all get out to see you after so long. Man, look at you, you're all grown up now. Makes me proud in my organ that pumps my blood. Growing a mustache I see, personally." He paused for a second as he raised his hand to his chin in a thinking position. "I don't really think the mustache works for you. Like, not at all. And don't even get me started on that shirt, jeez, it's so last year. Man, Jake, it's a good thing we're here, I mean, what would you do without me? You'd end up looking like Ax when we let him dress himself." He then shuddered in disgust. "Do you remember when we let him do that to the mall? Man, I'll never forget how everyone and their mother just stared at him like that. Anyway, how about a quick match of Doom? I'll even let you win if it'll help you feel better."

Now, I had told Marco to let me do the talking but I am glad that he spoke up. You could hear the genuine enthusiasm and sincerity in his voice that he was happy to see Jake.

Jake's face remained stoic for a few seconds until you could see a smile forming. Marco of course noticed this right away and stepped towards him and gave him what he calls a bro hug. I could see Marco holding back tears as he was being reunited with his best friend. Jake's face was covered in the biggest smile I've seen in months.

"It's so good to see you, Marco." Jake said, tears in his eyes.

"Of course it is, Jake." Marco smirked. "I mean, I'm me. It's always good to see me. Have you seen me? I'm friggin amazing."

Marco let go of Jake and stepped back as Jake smiled. "You never change, Marco. You'll always have that same mouth of yours."

"Hey, my mouth is my best feature." Marco said, sounding insulted. "Just ask my girlfriend. She'll tell you that my mouth is amaz-" Tobias cut him off abruptly.

"That's more than enough information, Marco." Tobias sighed.

"Wait," Jake asked. "Marco actually has a girlfriend? How in the hell did that happen? Which unlucky girl is his newest victim?"

"Wow." Marco said, sounding shocked and insulted. "That really hurts, Jake. Right in the feels."

"You wouldn't believe who it is, Jake." Tobias answered.

"Who?" He asked.

"It's Melissa." I answered him.

Jake looked shocked. "Melissa Chapman? Are you serious. Marco, what were you thinking? Don't you remember that Chapman basically threatened to kill you if you ever tried to date or to even talk to her again?"

"You see, Jake." He paused as he struck a pose. "I'm irresistible. I'm the space cowboy, the gangster of love, no force on Earth or any planet for that matter can keep us apart. It's my roguish charm, I'm telling you. And besides, Chapman isn't our principal anymore so he doesn't have a say in it."

"The gangster of what?" I asked, confused by Marco's usual blabbering.

"Can we just get back to why we're here?" Rachel asked in a loud, angry tone.

The smile let Jake's face. "So why are you here, Rachel?" He asked. "I thought that you were done with me a long time ago."

"I'm only here because Cassie asked me here, Jake. Don't get the wrong idea."

The tension between Rachel and Jake was practically visible. They just stared silently at each other until I broke the silence.

"Jake, we're all here to talk to you, see how you're doing. We want to-"

"Ask my to be your leader again?" He cut me off. "I told you, Cassie, never again."

"We came to tell you the situation, Jake, and to tell you that there is someone who wants to talk to you."

"Who?" He asked. "Ax? I don't have a problem with talking to him if he wants to come over but I told you, I've made up my mind, I'm done being your leader. I, I just can't do it anymore. I can't handle it."

"Actually, Jake." I started. As I did I slowly reached to hold his hand. "Toby wants to see you, she says that it's important."

"Toby?" He asked. "Why does she want to see me? Is something wrong with the Hork-Bajir colony?"

I turned to Tobias. "We actually don't know, she wouldn't tell us, she wants to see you in person, so to speak."

Jake stood there for a few seconds thinking it over. "Fine." He finally said. "So how exactly am I supposed to be able to talk to her? I told you that I don't morph anymore, so flying is out."

"Actually, Jake." I said as I let go of his hand. "We are going to be flying there but not the way you're thinking of."

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

(Author's Note)

Thank you all for reading. I'm so sorry about my two month hiatus. I've been busy with work, sleeping, watching anime and playing Pokemon Go. I know, those are all really bad excuses but I'm working on it. From here on I'm going to be following my previous upload schedule, that being me posting a new chapter every Friday/Saturday. Depending on your time zone, whenever they release it for everyone to see and when I finish with it and have time to upload it. It's currently 3:41 in the morning so you all better appreciate me finishing this chapter.

I want to give a special shout out to nerdist999 for reviewing this story and for being the push for me to continue with this story and all stories altogether. I had never gotten any feedback on my stories until after I had stopped so I had assumed that people just didn't read or like them. I was going to quit until I got a few emails telling me that people liked my stories and were following me. Nerdist999, if you're out there thank you for being the first person to tell me that you like my story and for following me. If you're reading this then PM me or leave a comment or review letting me know. If I don't get any feedback then I just assume that my stories aren't good.

Anyway, back to what I was saying, I'll be trying really hard to follow my upload schedule with a new chapter every week and a new one-shot every month or so. While I'm on that topic, I had planned some one-shots for Christmas, New Year's and Valentine's Day that ranged from Teen to Mature. If any of you are still interested in those then let me know, I'll begin work on them asap.

If for any reason I don't keep up with my upload schedule than please, keep PMing me or commenting or reviewing until I do and tell me to stop slacking and work on them.

Thanks again for reading my story, if you haven't read my first story, The Revenge, then please, read it, it's completed and is necessary for understanding this story. And by read it I mean every chapter, not just the first and last few that had clickbait titles.

If you find any typos or mistakes or have any suggestions or comments or questions just let me know.


	3. Ch3: Jake:The Seer Of His People Part 1

Chapter 3: Jake: The Seer Of His People Part 1

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading, if you haven't, please, read this story from the beginning starting with the first story Animorphs: The Untold Stories 1: The Revenge. It's crucial to understand what's going on. Thanks again and sorry about the late upload.

Xxxxx

"So where exactly did you guys get these Bug Fighters?" I asked.

We were all deep in the woods near Ax's _Scoop,_ looking around I was a little surprised to say the least. Before me stood two Bug Fighters, one fixed up and looking almost new and the other barely being held together by some kind of tape and bungee cords. Real high tech, I thought. However I am impressed that the others managed to commandeer them from the Yeerks. Next to them were a few workbenches for I assume Ax and Erek, along with a few crates and boxes filled with tools and supplies scattered around.

"This is a nice little setup you have here, guys." I continued.

"You haven't seen anything yet, O' Fearless Leader, believe me." Marco said he started walking up the ramp of the fixed up Bug Fighter.

"Please don't call me that." I mumbled under my breath.

"To answer your question, Jake," Cassie started as she walked up to me and lightly grabbed my arm. "We stole them a few months ago from an old military air force base that the Yeerks use to hold their old and damaged ships. It took a few tries but we managed to grab five in total, the rest are in the Hork-Bajir valley for security, we don't want all of our ships in one place do we?"

I looked down to Cassie's hand on my arm, it made me smile. After the incident in the hospital and the barn I could barely stand looking at her, it hurt so much. After the barn I couldn't look at her without thinking of that night, I couldn't stop seeing my hands hold her down. I would see that every night in my dreams for months until Cassie helped me come to terms with everything that had happened. However, contrary to what she believes I'm still not fully past it. I still have a hard time getting close to her and touching her. I don't know if she's noticed or not but whenever we hug, hold each other or hold hands she's always the one to start it. I've never once touched her without her being the one to touch me first. I know that she wants to move on with our lives but I'm just not ready yet.

"Jake?" Cassie asked, concerned. "Jake, are you okay?"

I snapped out of it and saw that everyone except Rachel was looking at me with concerned looks on their faces.

"I'm fine, Cassie," I said with a smile. "I was just lost in thought."

"Maybe this isn't the best time, we can do this later if you need."

"No, no, I'm ready to do this."

With that Cassie and I followed the others up the ramp of the Bug Fighter.

Xxxxx

It only took about twenty minutes but we arrived at the hidden Hork-Bajir Valley. We would've gotten here sooner but we had to literally fly under the radar so that the Yeerks didn't spot us on radar since the ships cloak still needed to be fixed.

As we landed I could feel my nerves tense up, looking around at the others you could tell that they were used to being flown around on Bug Fighters by the Chee. I, on the other hand have gotten used to my sort of normal life. Cassie took my hand again and we got up from our seats and walked down the ramp into the free Hork-Bajir colony. Looking around I could see that we landed in a clearing that was filled with three other Bug Fighters all lined up in a row. I could see various Chee in their unhologrammed, metallic forms working on them and running tests. Next to the ships were several small storage sheds and containers. I let go of Cassie's hand and walked around the clearing looking at the ships. I walked over to a row of storage crates to look inside, but when I did it nearly took my breath away. Inside the large wooden crates were stacks and stacks of Yeerk Dracon Beams and various other guns that I have never seen before. In the crate to the right of me I saw even more Dracon Beams. In the crate to my left I saw cases of Yeerk explosives. I stepped back franticly, trying to catch my breath. Seeing Yeerk weapons up close after so long sent my breathing haywire.

Suddenly I couldn't seem to breath, I kept trying to breath in but it was no use, it was as if my throat had closed. Without realizing what happened I found myself on my knees grabbing at my throat and chest trying to breath. All the while I kept trying to breath in but I could feel that my lungs weren't getting any oxygen. In the blink of an eye I found myself lying on the ground, practically clawing at my chest in order to breath.

"Jake!" I heard Cassie yell from what seemed like far away. I tried to turn my head to where I heard her voice but within seconds my vision started blurring and I found that I couldn't think straight, I was feeling dizzy and lightheaded.

"What's going on?" I heard another voice say, Marco?

"What happened? Is he okay?" Another asked.

"Cassie, what's happening?" They all sounded so concerned. Why? I thought. I feel fine, I feel so calm. I feel at peace.

I barely registered the sensation of someone grabbing me and putting their hand on my forehead.

"He's burning up." A worried voice said, Cassie? She seemed closer now.

"Look at him, he's sweating like crazy."

I could feel that I was losing consciousness, it's happened so many times over the years, I'm used to it, so I know how it feels. I felt as if I was dying, in my head I was sure that I was dying here and now. In the arms of someone who loved me for who I was, even after all the things that I've done to her, she still loved me. However, I felt calm and relaxed. In death I was feeling strangely calm. I had no idea what was going on. Then, darkness.

Xxxxx

"Jake!" A voice. "Wake up, stay with us." My eyes opened for a brief second, then closed again. Darkness.

I woke for a few seconds. I could feel myself being carried by large, powerful hands, scaly hands. Then I passed out again.

"Jake, Jake are you okay?" Cassie's voice.

My eyes suddenly shot open. I looked around, I was lying on an uncomfortable cot made from sheets and wood. I turned my head to find Cassie in tears sitting next to me.

"Cassie?" I asked. "Wha-, What happened?"

"Oh, Jake." She cried as she practically jumped out of her seat to hug me. "You're awake, thank God."

Her over-inflated belly got in the way, but despite how uncomfortable it must've been she laid in my arms for a few minutes without saying anything, all the while the physical contact and unfortunate familiar setting of her lying on me made me uncomfortable and nervous. I could tell that she wanted me to hold her and hug her back but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Cassie sensed that I was uncortable and got off of my lap and sat back down in her chair. She didn't look happy about it though.

"I'm sorry, Jake." She said, with genuine emotion in her voice. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, I'm just happy to see that you're okay."

"It's fine, Cassie." I lied. "What happened? Did I fall and hit my head or something?"

Worry crept back on her face. "You mean, that you don't know what happened?"

"Uh, no?" I said, confused, my head still throbbing.

"Jake." She started, I could hear the worry in her voice. "You passed out on us half a dozen times."

"I did?" I asked. I had no memory of anything after landing in the valley.

"Yeah, you did." She then reached for my hand. I moved my arm to rub my forehead, pretending that I didn't notice her hand. I was still feeling uncomfortable from when she was on my lap. She continued, "I think that you had a panic attack, Jake."

"What?" I asked.

"Well you were hyperventilating, it was as if you were choking on air. One of the signs of a panic attack is the feeling of choking. You were also sweating profusely. Tell me," She paused. "What were your other symptoms?"

"I'm fine, Cassie. I didn't have a panic attack, I must've just gotten light headed or something."

Her smile left her face and her tone darkened. "'No you're _not_ fine, Jake. You passed out half a dozen times in the span of fifteen minutes, that is unhealthy and unsafe. You're luckily that I didn't get my way and that you're not in a hospital right now. Now, tell me," Her tone brightened a little. "What were your other symptoms? Because like it or not, I'm the closest thing to a doctor you have here."

I sighed and took a few seconds to try to remember what happened. "I remember being unable to breath, I would go to breath in but it was as if my lungs weren't getting any air. I felt my heart rate increase, then feeling dizzy and lightheaded. Then," I paused.

"What is it?" She asked, concerned.

"I felt at peace." I said, confused by my own words. "When I was on the ground and was about to pass out I had a sudden wave of calmness wash over me, I felt at peace."

I dropped my head into my hands. "What is wrong with me?" I cried out.

Cassie tried to reassure me. "There's nothing wrong with you, Jake."

"Yes, there is, Cassie. There has to be." I paused as a realization came over me. "I felt as if I was dying, no," I corrected myself. "In my mind, in that moment I was sure that I was going to die. And do you know what my feelings were in that moment?" I asked, but I didn't wait for an answer. "I felt calm, I felt at peace. Cassie, I felt happy, happy to be dying. I…, I…," I trailed off, not finishing my thought. I looked up to Cassie, my head in my hands.

There she sat, tears rolling down her face. She was crying so quietly that I didn't hear her.

"Cassie?" I asked. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" She looked up at me and spoke softly.

"I'm crying… because the love of my life just... told me… tha-, that he felt _happy_ in the face of death. I'm crying because I don't want to lose you, Jake. I love you. Do you really think that you're the only one going through hell right now?" She paused and reached for my hand, I quickly grabbed her hand in return. "Do you realize that I have to live with the thought of losing you everyday? I worry that you'll hurt yourself, or… or… worse. This, this is what I live with everyday, and now you tell me that when you felt that you were going to die that you were happy. How do you expect me to feel, Jake? I love you, more than anything, I love you."

We sat in motionless silence for what seemed like an eternity, heads and eyes down, wrapping our heads around what the other had said. I reflected on what Cassie had said, while it wasn't really anything new, as I know that she loves and cares for me, it still shocked me to hear. I looked down to our hands that were still connected. How nice and warm the sensation was to be able to hold her, to be able to comfort and give her strength when I had none of my own. In that moment I began to realize how much Cassie relied on me for comfort and strength. Before Tom and the barn she would lean on me when she needed support. Hold my hand when she needed comfort. And to lay in my arms when she needed to feel protected and safe. She once told me after one of our more violent and terrifying missions that when she was in my arms she felt as if nothing in the world could touch her, that no force on Earth could harm her, as long as I held her. I remember pondering those words as she fell asleep in my arms all those months ago. Has it really been that long, I thought to myself.

Feeling all of those emotions again I did something unexpected, even to myself. With my right arm I pulled her to me as carefully as I could and I hugged her with my left. Now to say that this surprised her is an understatement, she was shocked, happy, but shocked.

I picked her up and sat her in my lap and held her in my arms the same way as all those months ago. "Don't worry, Cassie." I said in a soft voice. "I'll always be here, you needn't to worry about that. I will never leave you. I will always be here for you, no matter what. I'll always be here to hold you, never forget that."

"Oh, Jake," She said, her eyes wide and a smile so pure it made my eyes tear up. "I love you."

"I love you too, Cassie. More than you can imagine."

Xxxxx

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. Sorry that it's a few days late, wanted to upload this Friday/Saturday. Next week will be The Seer Of His People Part 2. Please, let me know what you think, leave a review. And let me know if you would like any short One-Shots anytime soon. I take and appreciate all positive feedback, if for any reason you don't like my stories don't read them.

Upload Schedule:

A new chapter every weekend.

A new short One-Shot at the end of every month.

Please feel free to harass me if I miss an upload and continue until I upload it.


	4. Ch4: Jake: The Seer Of His People Part 2

Chapter 4: Jake: The Seer Of His People Part 2

"What do you mean you're not coming with me?" I asked Cassie as we walked out of the little tent I was resting in that the Hork-Bajir made. It was about fortyfive minutes after I woke up, Cassie and I talked for awhile about how I was doing as I held her in my arms.

"I'm sorry, Jake," She said with a soft smile. "But look at me." She paused as she gestured to her rounded stomach. I looked down at her, her belly seemed so large it seemed to overtake her body. Cassie has always been a small person, very short with a small frame. The top of her head only came up to my chest now since she stopped growing vertically and started growing horizontally. Ever since she started getting me to eat healthy again and gain my weight back I've grown a few more inches, I'm now about six foot three inches. But now with her being seven months pregnant her stomach seemed to just double in size from a month ago. I admit, even though my dad is a doctor and Cassie is pregnant, I know nothing at all when it comes to pregnancy terms and growth development and things like that. Not that Cassie hasn't tried explaining it all to me every month or so, it's just that I have a hard time thinking about it so I normally just choose not to pay attention whenever she says she hits a milestone or something.

"I'm not exactly in the best shape to hike up the side of a mountain, Jake. While you on the other hand, are." She patted my arm, smiling. "Besides, I need to be getting home. It takes a full day of begging my mom to let me go out now, the only reason she let me leave is because I told her that Rachel was driving me around today and that I wasn't going to be walking around much." Cassie turned her head to see Rachel standing at the bottom of the ramp of the Bug Fighter, clearly not looking happy that she was having to wait. Rachel's and my eyes met for a brief second then she quickly broke eye contact. The look in her eyes was of anger and doubt. I shook off those thoughts quickly, if Rachel wanted to stay mad at me then I'd let her, I honestly didn't care whether she hated me or not. I had my reasons why I quit the team and why I am the way that I am. If she doesn't want to acknowledge that then that's her problem, not mine.

"Well Jake," Cassie said as she gave me a brief hug. "We'd better get going. We still have to fly back to where we left Rachel's car so she can drop me and Marco off."

My smile dropped slightly. "Marco's leaving too? He's not coming with me either?" I asked.

"I thought I told you, Jake. Marco said that he had a pre planned date with Melissa this evening. He kept going on and on about it all week, it was starting to get pretty annoying. You know, he's fully convinced that she's the one, and that they're going to get married in a few years."

That shocked me, Marco has always been a ladies man, so to speak, even if he wasn't very good at it. I just can't imagine him becoming so serious about a girl that he'd even consider marrying her. "Wow, that's surprising, to say the least, didn't know Marco could be serious about a relationship. So," I asked, my smile fading. "Is Tobias coming with me then? From what you told me this hike seems a little long to go on by myself."

"Actually," She said, giving me a smile. "Tobias already left to go check on Ax and Erek working on the Bug Fighter at Ax's scoop. But he is going to be back here tonight to go over some numbers with some Chee here. But don't worry, Jake, Toby and some other Hork-Bajir are going to go on the hike with you too."

Great, I thought. Stuck alone on a mountain top with a whole bunch of Hork-Bajir. This is going to be interesting. Let's say that the Hork-Bajir aren't exactly the most talkative species in the galaxy. This is going to be one quiet and uneventful hike. Not that I don't enjoy the silence and calmness about not being the leader of a war for the fate of Earth. "Just tell me, Cassie." I asked. "What exactly is this hike and why am I going on it? I thought that Toby wanted to talk to me. She does know that we can talk down here in the Valley right, and that we don't need to go on a several mile hike?"

She gestured towards the ramp and we continued walking slowly to it. "Honestly, Jake, I can't say. Toby didn't tell us, she just said that she wanted you to go on the hike with her and the Hork-Bajir."

"So how exactly am I supposed to hike up that mountain?" I looked down at myself. I was wearing some old and very worn hiking boots, some shorts and a t-shirt. Now I see why Cassie told me to wear the boots, I thought to myself.

"Don't worry about it, Jake." Cassie said as she pointed to a backpack lying by a large rock covered in moss. "I had Marco bring some stuff for you in there, including some water, food, gloves and sleeping bag. I also added a first-aid kit just in case and some other stuff you might need up there." Cassie said this with a smile, trying to reassure me that everything was going to be fine.

"Sleeping bag?" I asked. "You're not planning on having me camp out up there are you?"

Cassie looked at me like I was crazy, like I shouldn't have thought otherwise. "Of course, even if you would've left when we got here it's a several hour hike to the top."

I looked to her in confusion. "Cassie," I started. "I just can't skip going home for the night and camp out here. My parents would totally freak, ever since you helped me get clean I've been staying at home all night, every night. If I just don't come home they'll think that I'm relapsing or something."

She smiled her usual calming, loving smile. "Jake. it's fine, I worked everything out. I called Jean while you were unconscious and told her that you were tired and that you were going to be staying for dinner with me and my parents and that you're going to be staying the night."

"But what about the fact that I'm not going to be at your house? What if my parents call yours or they talk to each other later?"

"Don't worry about it, Jake." She turned to Rachel and held up a finger that meant she'd be there in a minute. "I already thought of that. I'm going to have Erek fill in for you at my house. I've been having him study your actions and attitude so that he can pull you off. Even so, it'd be hard to trick your parents so I thought it'd be easier to have him pretend to be you with my parents. Even if my parents know you really well they haven't talked to you let alone seen you in almost six months. They should be too preoccupied with being glad that you're doing better to notice that you're not you."

What?" I asked, a little confused and taken back by how much Cassie had thought this out. "You actually planned all this? Exactly how long have you and Tobias been planning this hike up the mountain?"

She smiled again. "About a week or so, that's when Toby asked us to have you come here so that she could talk to you and show you something."

"Show me something?" I asked, skeptical. "What could be so important that I needed to come all of the way out here and climb a friggin mountain? And why couldn't we just fly up there in the Bug Fighter?" I was starting to get a little irritated. I wanted nothing to do with whatever was going on, all I wanted to do was see what Toby wanted to tell me. When I agreed to come up here I assumed that she'd be here waiting for me, say something like 'You need to rejoin your friends in the fight against the Yeerks.' I expected to be done with the conversation with Toby and be on my way back home in twenty minutes. I had been excited to be able to get to talk to Tobias and see how he and the others were doing, but as his friend, not as his leader. Mostly the reason why I agreed to come was to make Cassie happy, a part of me also wanted to see how Toby and the Hork-Bajir were doing.

"Well, anyway." Cassie said as she started to turn away. "I've really got to be going. See you tomorrow, Jake. I hope that you have a good time, and please, be careful. If you need to rest or stop for any reason Toby will understand. Don't push yourself too hard." She waved goodbye as she, Rachel and Marco headed up the ramp of the Bug fighter.

Xxxxx

Author's Note:

Hey guys, sorry about the shorter chapter this time. I was planning on combining this and the next chapter but I still have some stuff to work out and I want to be able to take my time on it and make it good. Plus if I combined them the chapter would end up being really long. I like my chapters to have around a couple thousand words, but not too many that it gets boring to read.

Another factor is that because of my schedule and upload schedule I only have about two days or so to work on each chapter so they can't be too long.

Anyway, thanks again for reading, leave a review if you like it or have any feedback. Also, in regarding to Cassie's pregnancy, I'm in the same boat as Jake, even though this story revolves around Cassie being pregnant I know next to nothing about how she should be feeling or acting, I don't even know if she could be walking around like she is now. I tried to do some research about it but like I said, with my work schedule I don't have that much time. And to be honest, when I tried to read up on it, all of it went over my head. I don't know if it's just because I'm a guy or if it's because I'm really dense but I can't seem to write about it very well. So I'm sorry if that side of the story is really lacking, there's nothing that I can really do about it without taking a lot of time researching and doing some rough drafts about it.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you still are. If anyone out there is interested and is good about writing about pregnancies and babies and stuff like that then I would be happy to have some help. I am still planning on having a chapter or so dedicated to her giving birth but I'm completely out of my element with writing it. If anyone out there is willing to help let me know asap, I can't really give you anything besides my gratitude but let me know.

In regards to what I was saying earlier about not having time to be able to work on new chapters I just want to say for the record that I don't plan on stopping this story anytime soon but I might have to change my upload schedule to be every other week so that I can have time to write and polish the stories better. Nothing has been decided yet I just wanted to let you know. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

Thanks for reading, HephaestusBuilds.


	5. Ch5:Jake: The Seer Of His People Part 3

Chapter 5: Jake: The Seer Of His People Part 3

***Author's Note***

Before I begin I just want to thank all of you for reading. Just to let all of you know this is my longest chapter yet. I spent a few all nighters on it so I hope that you all love it. This chapter connects to the Hork-Bajir Chronicles heavily so if you haven't read it you will be at loss of what I'm talking about. If you're able, please read it before this chapter. But if not you'll still be able to enjoy it. I also want to give you all a heads up that I recently created my profile, just basic stuff really, lists my stories and upload schedule. If you would please be so kind to check it out and **Favorite** this story and **Follow** it would really help out and make my day. Thanks, Hephaestus.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

"So tell me, Toby, why exactly am I here?" I asked the Hork-Bajir. She was waking up to me with a smile on her face. Or what passes for a Hork-Bajir smile. Honestly, if you didn't know what it was you'd run crying for your mom.

"You are here to answer a question." She said plainly. She stood next to me. I looked up at her. I have to admit, even though I've seen thousands of Hork-Bajir up close it's a totally different feeling standing next to one as myself. I just seem so small and powerless next to her. I'm over six foot, so I'm considered by most to be tall, but Toby stood almost eight feet standing straight. She was slightly taller than the average Hork-Bajir but nonetheless she was intimidating to stand next to. I know that she didn't mean me any harm, and that the Hork-Bajir were peaceful and that they considered us, mostly Tobias, to be their saviors, their liberators, so that they would never dream of hurting me, but it still made me nervous in the back of my mind.

"Answer a question?" I asked, a little irritated. This was beginning to feel like a total waste of time. "I thought that you wanted me here so that you could tell me something, now you want to know something?"

She turned her large beaked head towards me and spoke. "Oh, you misunderstand, Jake. I am not here to ask you anything, for I already know the answer."

"What?" I asked, confusion clearly on my face. "If you already know then why are you asking it?" Toby was starting to get on my nerves, she wasn't making any sense.

"You are here so that you can find the answer yourself." She gestured for us to start walking, I remained still.

"Enough of the riddles. Stop talking around it, Toby. Just tell me why I am here or I'm leaving right now." A second after I said it I realized that I had no way out of this valley by myself, the others wouldn't be here until tomorrow to pick me up and there's no way in hell that I'm morphing to fly home.

She sighed, obviously a little upset that I was upset at her. "You are here so that you can find out what you really want, not what you think you want, but what you really desire in your heart and know what's right."

"And what's that?" I asked skeptically, my tone a little rude. I was getting tired of this BS to be honest.

"To know if you want to rejoin your friends and fight the Yeerks or to remain as yourself, a waste of a man." She said, I could hear the frustration in her voice. "You have convinced yourself that you do not wish to fight, that is a lie."

"No, that's completely true," I said. My voice raising with each point. "I have no intention to go back to leading a war for the fate of the world. I am sick and tired of living in constant fear, worry, anger and hatred. I am tired of ordering my friends around to their deaths every day. I am sick and tired of all the killing." I kept raising my voice the whole time, I was practically screaming now, screaming at a creature that could kill me without any effort. "And do you know what?" I asked. "I am fucking sick and tired of everyone getting on my case about it, I am done fighting, I am done leading, I am done being the cause of so many deaths." I stood silent for a few seconds, allowing myself to calm down, even though I wanted to scream my lungs out at anyone who listened. But Toby didn't deserve my anger, I knew that. "I'm just done, Toby, really done with this war. I can't stand the killing anymore. I can't stand the burden of leading my friends anymore. I just can't."

All the while I was screaming at her Toby never flinched, never got angry, and never seemed to mind that I was screaming at her. She knew that I needed to blow off steam, and that my anger wasn't directed towards her. She didn't do anything wrong. She waited for me to calm down before responding. "I know that this war has been hard on you, Jake. I really have. But it's been hard on all of your friends too, they all know where you're coming from, they've all seen and experienced everything you have. Talk to them, I know that all of them would be willing to listen and to talk. To be willing to help you understand that this war has been hard on everyone." She once again gestured for us to start walking, I grabbed the backpack Cassie and Marco left me and walked along side Toby.

"The problems not that I don't know that they've all been through hell, I know that. It's just that they don't understand how it feels to be leader. The feelings of constant fear, worry, doubt. The feeling of whatever you do that it won't work, and that you'll all eventually lose, and for us that means we'll die. The Earth would be screwed. None of them besides Tobias could understand the weight that is on my shoulders, and you could argue that he doesn't. When I was leader, fighting the Yeerks, I was the last line of defense for not just my friends but for all of Earth. Can you even begin to imagine that, Toby, the weight of seven and a half billion people on your shoulders? If I fell, if the Animorphs fell the Earth would be lost to the Yeerks and seven and a half billion people would suffer because of that. Who in the world could even begin to understand the burden that I feel? The weight that I carry?" I stopped talking for a second and breathed in, trying to catch my breath. I was not just out of breath from being hyped up talking but we had begun our hike up the side of the mountain and the path was very rough and ragged. "Listen, I'm not trying to make it sound like no one on Earth hasn't had countless lives in their hands but, let's be honest here. I don't know if you know much about our history but I can tell you for certain that no man has ever had the entire population of the world in the palm of his hand. No one before me has carried the weight of the world on their shoulders, they might have felt like they had at the time and in the situation, but in truth they haven't. If I go back to leading this war I have to accept that burden again, and I'm not ready, no, I'll never be ready to accept that burden again."

"That's where you're wrong, Jake." Toby said as she helped me up the hill. The path was made for Hork-Bajir, I was a few feet shorter than them so I couldn't make some of the steps that they worked into the hillside. "I know the burden in which you speak, and I know that it is unlike anything you've experienced before but you can, and you must accept it again."

I looked behind me as about twenty or thirty or so Hork-Bajir made the trek behind me. I knew that they could easily pass me by increasing their speed or by simply climbing into the trees. But they were giving Toby and I some room to talk. I didn't really know why, I mean it's nice not having thirty 'people' not listening into your conversation but to be honest they wouldn't be able to comprehend what we were talking about anyway. "Not to be rude, Toby." I said as I struggled over a fallen log that she simply jumped over. "But you don't, no one does. I am single handedly responsible for my entire species, you wouldn't understand."

"I wouldn't?" She asked, sounding insulted. "You forget who you're talking to, my friend, but I am the leader of my people, their _Seer_. I am the only Hork-Bajir that can understand and comprehend what's going on with this war in the entire galaxy. I am literally the only one of my people that can save them. Without me my people would be lost and would all be either turned into slaves once again or simply killed on the spot." She turned her head towards me. I could see the pain and struggle in her alien eyes of being the only hope for her people. I could relate to that look far too much. "Without me," she continued. "My people would be lost, just as you with yours. So don't tell me that I don't know what it feels like to carry the weight of my people to, for I feel the same burden as you."

We walked in silence for a few minutes as we thought over what the other had said. It was foolish, I thought. To think that Toby didn't know how it felt, she was the leader of her people just like me. While the number of lives in our hands differed greatly she and I were both the so called saviors of our people. The only difference was that she never gave up, she never quit, she never once wanted to live a normal life. Because if she did, she'd know that her people would be helpless without her. I feel so selfish and stupid, I thought to myself. Thinking that I could just abandon this war and think that it would just go away. I was just fooling myself.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"So tell me, Toby," I said, breaking the silence after a few minutes. "Why are we walking up this mountain? I mean I know that you wanted me out here to the valley so that you could talk to me about everything, and I appreciate that, I really do, but why couldn't we just talk in the valley?" I looked back to the Hork-Bajir behind us. "And why are they coming with us? For protection or something? I don't understand."

Toby looked at me and smiled her terrifying Hork-Bajir smile. "The reason that we and the other Hork-Bajir are walking up the side of this mountain is because we are on the Walk Of The _Seer_." She said as if it explained everything.

"And what is this, Walk Of The _Seer_?" I asked. As I did I gestured to a fallen log and sat, trying to catch my breath. I was seriously out of shape from staying locked up in my room for the past few months. The incline, rough terrain and altitude didn't help any either.

Toby sat next to me and as soon as she did all the other Hork-Bajir followed her example and sat almost immediately and looked to her for further instructions. She gave none so they just sat and talked amongst themselves in their limited, broken speech.

"The Walk Of The _Seer_ is a walk that we Hork-Bajir take every year. A pilgrimage, if you will, that we take in honor the memory of the _Seer_ before me, Dak Hamee." She gestured towards her people. "Even though I am well aware that they cannot comprehend what we are doing I feel that it is good for us to honor him as a people, not just as myself."

I nodded, I agreed with that.

I sat for a few seconds remembering what Tobias had told me of the story the Hork-Bajir had told him of Dak Hamee, the _Seer_. The story of the beginning of the war between the Andalite's and the Yeerks, and how the Hork-Bajir were enslaved and how their enslavement by the Yeerks helped them extend their reach across the galaxy tenfold. It had been a few years but I remembered it well, that story stuck in my mind like nothing else.

"Tobias told us the story of Dak Hamee that you Hork-Bajir told him. I remember that it was Dak Hamee that led his people against the Yeerks and was responsible for holding the Yeerks at bay for months."

"Yes," Toby said sadly. "Dak Hamee, my father's father-father-father was the _Seer_ that fought off the Yeerks on our homeworld, a world that I, nor none of the Hork-Bajir here have seen. It was him who showed the Hork-Bajir that they could fight the Yeerks. And even though the battle was long drawn out and hard fought he eventually lost and the Yeerks took over our planet and enslaved our people. Now it is my job to follow in his footsteps and complete his mission and defeat the Yeerks and free my people." I looked at the sky above us as I listened. I could hear the passion and emotion in her alien voice. It was hard to listen to, with every word I couldn't help but think of my friends, family and everyone on Earth who was counting on me, even if they didn't know it, to save them.

I imagined myself standing on a mountaintop before the population of Earth, announcing that I, was their savior and only means of freedom and only chance at hope. I shook those thoughts away. I didn't want to be anyone's savior, I'm not a hero. I didn't want anyone relying on me to save them. This must be how Toby feels whenever she thinks about leading her people. She is their only hope.

xxxxxXxxxxx

We continued walking up the path for a while, talking about small things really, nothing that really mattered. Toby realized that I needed time to think over what I had heard so we mostly talked about the others and my time away from the group. To be completely honest, part of me wanted to rejoin the others and accept my terrible burden again but the other wanted a life where I didn't have to lead a war for Earth.

"Do you know what a _Seer_ is, Jake?" Toby asked out of the blue. Bringing our conversation back around to what we were talking about before.

I looked at her with a slightly confused look. Was it a trick question? "You said that the _Seer_ is the leader of your people, right?" I said, while struggling to climb steps that were far too large for my legs.

"That is true, Jake." She said as she grabbed my hand pulling me up. "But there is much more to it than that. My people believe that when the people are in a time of need and are faced with a challenge than a _Seer_ will be born among them. The role of the _Seer_ is to not only to lead and to show them the way but to also teach their people how to live after their lives are changed. A _Seer_ must burden all the knowledge, grief, and pain that their people cannot. The average person can not be a _Seer_. For they can not endure the struggles and hardships that they must face and carry everyday." She paused as she turned to see if the other Hork-Bajir were still behind us. They were. "It is the job of the _Seer_ to guide their people until they die. It is as simple as that. This job that _we_ have does not end when whatever great challenge is faced, we do not have the luxury of being able to live a life different from what was destined for us." I could hear the emphasis she put on 'we'. She was saying that I was like her, the leader of my people and that I cannot get around that, as must as I wish I could.

"I do not believe that the role of the _Seer_ is exclusive to just my people." She continued as we walked over some fallen logs that were acting as a bridge over a small river. Even though it was revealed that the only reason why I am biologically different from my brothers and sisters is that the Arn, our creators couldn't make me as simple minded as regular Hork-Bajir, I still believe that I was born for a reason. To be the _Seer_ of my people and to lead them against the Yeerks and into freedom. I believe that every people has a _Seer._ Every tribe, every village, every state, country, planet has a _Seer_ among them waiting to step up and lead their people. And while I am the _Seer_ of my people I am not the _Seer_ for yours." I looked up to her, I knew what she was about to say. "You are. You are not just the _Seer_ of your friends, the Animorphs, your town, city, state, country or even planet." She paused as we waited for one of the youngest Hork-Bajir to catch up to the group behind us.

"As the leader of the war against the Yeerks, and really the last hope the galaxy has to stop the Yeerks before they get several billion new Human Hosts, you are the _Seer_ of all of the free races themselves. You are responsible for the lives of all of the races left in this arm of the Milky Way. You, as the _Seer_ of Earth and fighter of the Yeerks are _Seer_ of all the beings in the galaxy."

I stopped walking as the words hit. I knew what Toby was saying was true. I am responsible for the people of Earth and all of the aliens across the galaxy. If I some how managed to stop the Yeerks here then I would be saving the entire galaxy from the fate of slavery and death the Yeerks would bring upon them. Still, hearing it spoken aloud did not help my nervousness. This is the reason why I refused to fight, to lead, to be there for my friends. I was nervous because of the fact that every being's life rested in my hands. It was overwhelming to say the least. I didn't want to mess up, didn't want to be responsible for any more deaths. To be responsible if one of my friends were to die. I couldn't even imagine how I would go on if Cassie, yet alone any of them were to die. With everything going on inside my head I could not lead my friends, my entire world, not now at least. I'm glad, I thought. That Toby brought me on this walk. I was admitting to myself things that I refused to even think about before.

"Jake," She asked. "Jake? Are you alright?"

I shook my head, bringing myself back into reality. "Alright?" I asked with a small laugh. "The pressure alone from what you just said would drive any sane man crazy." She looked at me with worry. "I'm fine, Toby." I reassured her. We continued walking. "I'm just trying to not be overwhelmed by everything. I know that I am responsible for the lives of everyone in the universe. I just refused to admit it until now. I understand the role that I play, always have. Since the age of thirteen when this war started I knew that a time would come when everything, and everyone's lives would ride on me. It's kept me up countless nights. The nightmares of standing before the world in ruin as the Yeerks win and seeing the Earth and her people fall around me. They're all too real for me. I've always known that that was not just the fears of a child, but a real possibility that I must face be able to face one day. So believe me when I tell you that I know what is at stake, I know what I must do,... I…" I broke off.

"That's good." She said. "You must know what to do so that you can lead your people." I turned to see a smile on her beaked face. While all signs of happiness washed off my face.

"The problem is, Toby." I continued. Trying not to choke over the words. "While I know in my heart that I must lead and become the _Seer_ of my people I just can't." I breathed in. "I just can't, I can't handle the burden anymore. After Tom, my brother died… I,... I,... can't handle ordering the ones I love most of all to their deaths anymore. I want to lead my people against the Yeerks but I just can't get over seeing his beaten and bloodied body. I lost both Tom and Cassie that day, while the Ellimist brought her back to me I still saw her die and held her lifeless body in my arms. I see those two dead in my dreams every time I closed my eyes. That's why I became a drunk and drugy, it was the only way I could forget their dead bodies in front of me, if only briefly. I can't stop imagining Marco, Tobias, Ax, or Rachel as Tom or Cassie. Everynight I see them dead before me. I see their bodies before me as Visser Three or some Yeerks throws them to my feet.

"I just can't live without them. Without any of them. I couldn't survive another one of them dying, believe me. I don't know if you were told but after David killed Tom and Cassie I held her dead body in my arms and cried and cried to have her back. I… I tried to kill myself so that I would join her." I paused as I fought off tears. I looked to Toby, she was listening with her whole being, she was beginning to understand the pain that I was in. "And I would've killed myself if the Ellimist didn't bring her back right then to stop me. I just couldn't handle losing one of them."

Toby stopped walking and looked to me. "You have to understand Jake, that if you choose to simply ignore this war and refuse to fight that you are allowing your greatest fears to happen?" She gestured for us to sit on some rocks. We sat, so did the Hork-Bajir behind us. "By choosing not to fight you are making it that much simpler for the Yeerks to win."

"I know that, Toby." I said as I held my head in my hands. "I'm just too scared to fight. I admit, me, the leader of the Animorphs, defender of the Earth and one and only defense against the Yeerks is too scared to fight, to lead, to even morph. I haven't morphed since Tom died, six months ago. I've been too scared to even morph a dog or dolphin, which in those morphs I'd be filled with nothing but joy, happiness and life. I'm too scared to morph because once I do I would be obligated to use my power to fight the Yeerks. I've been too proud to admit my fears to anyone, besides you, I mean." Toby looked at my questionly. "You're the only one I've been this open to. I don't know why, maybe it's the peaceful setting, maybe it's the fact that I haven't talked to you in half a year and that I know that what you're saying is true. I don't know. Maybe it's just because I know in my heart that what I'm saying is true and that I'm finally beginning to admit it." I stopped talking and looked to Toby, she had a face that I could not recognize as what it meant.

"What's up?" I asked her. "What's that look?"

She smiled her alien smile and answered. "It's pride. I'm proud that you're finally beginning to listen to your heart and admit what you've been refusing to believe. I'm also happy that I was also able to help you find your answer."

xxxxxXxxxxx

Toby and I sat and talked for a while about how we could help me get over my fears and worries, we couldn't think of anything I or Cassie hadn't already thought of. "I'm sorry." She said. "That I can't be of more help."

"Don't even begin to think that, Toby." I said as I started setting up my sleeping bag as she light a fire. We were setting up camp for the night, it gets dark fast in the mountains and was far too dangerous to travel at night so we'd sleep then continue our walk in the morning. "You've helped me so much that I don't even know what to say. I'm finally coming around to the idea of rejoining the others and fighting the Yeerks. I just have to get over my fears of morphing and leading, that's all. Not that that won't be extremely difficult." I added.

"That is why you will be doing the rest of the walk by yourself, so that you can face the fears inside you."

"Wait," I said. "I'm going by myself the rest of the way? How much further is it? And how will I know which way to go without you leading the way?"

"Calm yourself, Jake." She said. "The rest of the climb is short, all you need to do is follow the trail we've been following for the past few hours and you'll be there not before long. The plan was always for you to go the rest of the way by yourself. This is the tradition, the other Hork-Bajir would camp and stay as the _Seer_ walks the rest of the way, it represents the walk from The Deep where the Arn hid to the valley above where the Yeerks built their bases that Dak Hamee walked as he prepared to fight them. I use it as a time to think to myself and talk to the trees so that Mother Sky can hear me. During the walk I reflect on the past year and my fears and doubts as _Seer_. You shall use it as well as a time to reflect on these past few months in particular and the past five years of your life as well since you began this war."

"I have to admit, Toby, I'm really glad that I came on this walk with you. It has helped show me what I'm supposed to do. I will think aloud as I walk the rest of the way, just as you said. So that whoever's listening can hear me."

"That's great, Jake." She said with a smile. "However, I must warn you that the rest of the walk will be the most challenging thing that you've ever done. On the walk you will not only think about your fears and regrets but also see them before you. You must face your greatest fears and regrets head on in order to reach the top."

I just sat awestruck at what she said. "What do you mean I will face my greatest fears? Haven't I already faced them? I know what they are."

"Yes, you know what they are but I can still sense that you have not overcome them, they are still weighing you down. Making it impossible for you to let go and to be at peace with yourself."

"Okay," I said, kinda confused. "But what do you mean about seeing my fears before me? How are they going to come before me, I am just going to think about them?" I asked.

She smiled again. "It would be easier just for you to experience it yourself. Now," she said as she sat and prepared to go to sleep. "Get some rest, you'll need it, believe me. We'll wake at dawn and you'll start on your Vision Walk then."

"Vision Walk?" I asked, but I got no response. I knew that it was impossible for her to fall asleep that quickly. She just didn't want to give anything away.

xxxxxXxxxxx

I woke just as the sun started to shine over the trees. Odd, I thought, I never get up this early. I guess my body knew that I needed to wake up so it woke up.

As I got up from my sleeping bag I grabbed my backpack to grab some food and water that Marco packed before I headed up the mountain. I still had no idea what to expect.

"I see that you are awake, Jake." Toby said from a few feet away. From the look of it she had already been awake for a little while. She had collected some bark for her to eat. I looked at the other Hork-Bajir, they were all already awake, the adults were collecting bark as the kids were playing in the trees. I never knew the Hork-Bajir were such early risers. "Eat quickly and get on your way to the mountaintop so that we can get back to the Valley before midday."

xxxxxXxxxxx

After I ate I grabbed my bag, a walking stick that one of the Hork-Bajir offered me, told Toby to wish me luck and headed up the trail on my Vision Walk as Toby had called it.

As I began walking I noticed that nothing seemed different. I wasn't seeing my deepest, darkest fears and regrets in front of me. Maybe because you haven't been thinking about them, Jake, I thought to myself. Oh yeah, I was apparently supposed to think out loud for whatever reason. Why not try that, I thought.

"Okay." I said out loud to no one. "Hey, how's it going?" I asked the nearest tree. No response of course. "Well maybe I should just try thinking about what I'm afraid of." I thought for a few seconds. "But I already know what I'm afraid of," I said to a nearby pine tree. Toby said that she talked to the trees so it was worth a shot. "I'm afraid of failing, of losing my friends. I'm afraid that they will all die because of me." I paused as I continued walking up the ever increasing incline. "Maybe I should be a little more specific, I guess." I told to a squirrel running by.

Then from the bushes not twenty feet away I heard ruffling sounds. I knew that sound. It was a large animal moving in the bushes. "Please be a deer or something." I said. "I only have a stick, don't be a bear, please. I'm really not in the mood." Hearing my own words I surprised myself, in response to thinking that I was going to run into a bear I felt apathetic to it. I didn't really care. How has my life come to this? I thought to myself.

From out of the bushes stepped a single young wolf. I froze but held my ground and attempted to scare it off by making noise but it didn't waiver. The wolf looked me up and down for a few seconds, trying to figure out what I was. Has this wolf never seen a person before? I asked myself. We are tens of miles from anything so that might be true. The wolf stepped ever closer to me timidly, trying to hold it's curiosity until it figured out if I was going to harm it or not.

For half a minute the young wolf and I exchanged glances, neither of us showing the other intent to harm, so I guess the wolf figured that out because it continued to follow me after I started walking again.

"Oh?" I asked the wolf. "You wanna walk with me do you?" I smiled towards the wolf. "Well I don't mind as long as you don't bite me. I've been bit by a wolf before you know, it wasn't fun." I said with a laugh that made the wolf look up at me curiously. As if it were trying to figure me out.

I looked down to the wolf as we walked together up the mountain for a few minutes. "You know," I said to the wolf. "You're acting more like a tamed dog than a wolf. What's up with that?" I paused as I looked behind me to the path below. The Valley has long been out of sight. There was nothing more than trees, animals and rocks for miles around. "You a part of my whole Vision Walk thing?" I asked the wolf as it continued to walk besides me. It looked up at me as soon as I asked and gave a look that made me think it was.

"You know," I continued to the wolf. "I know someone who can turn into a wolf. Really, it's true. I don't really know what to call her." I walked quietly for a few seconds to think about what I was saying. "I mean, we're friends, but we're much more than friends. She has helped me far more than any simple friend would." I looked to the young wolf for feedback, it looked up at me with the look of curiosity. I took that as it wanted me to continue. "For a time her and I were boyfriend and girlfriend, we dated for slightly over two years. It would've been more if I had gotten the guts to tell her how I feel and ask her out earlier. When we were together I was the happiest I've ever been since this war. Knowing that she was there for me to hold when I needed strength gave me the power to get through that war. However," I went on. "Ever since that night at the hospital and the barn I haven't been able to call her my girlfriend. I mean, I am so ashamed of what I did and worried that I might do it again that I'm too afraid to touch her. I've been getting better recently I guess, I hugged her yesterday and held her in my arms for over half an hour. So that's progress."

I stopped talking as I struggled to climb some steps that were cut into the cliffside by the Hork-Bajir that were too large for me to take easily. I looked to see how the wolf was handling the terrain, it was acting as if it were walking on flat ground. These rocks and fallen logs were no trouble for it. The woods are it's element. "Anyway," I continued again. "I guess that with Cassie as long as I keep moving forward that's all I can do. I'm already trying as hard as I can to get back to where we were before. Guess I'll talk to her and ask if she has any ideas when she picks me up after I get back to the Valley." As soon as those words left my mouth the wolf did something that startled me. It made a barking sound, sort of like a dog. It wasn't a growl or an angry noise, just kind of like it was excited about something. I turned to see that the wolf was starting to head the other direction off of the trail and into the woods. "You're leaving already?" I asked. "Well I guess that you did what you set out to do, you made me confess some things to myself about Cassie. Thank you."

XxxxxXxxxxX

After the wolf left I walked for a good hour reflecting on what I had 'talked' about with the wolf. "So let me guess," I said to no one. "I'm going to see an animal for each one of my friends out here? Is that how it's going to work?" I smiled to myself. I really doubt that there's any gorillas out here, how's that going to work for Marco?

I sat down on an old mossy fallen log to catch my breath and drink some water. I had refilled my canteen that Marco packed in a river that I passed not so long ago. Normally I'd hesitate about drinking water straight from a river without boiling it first but I figured that I was so far out from anything that the water should be fine. As I was catching my breath I looked around me to the woods all around me. There was really nothing to look at, besides the occasional squirrel or small bird. But none of them gave me the impression of the others.

My eyes were unconsciously scanning the grass when something moving under the grass caught my eye. I leaned forward and strained my eyes to be able to see them, it was a small group of black ants walking around searching for food. A small group of around ten or so. I don't know why I was so drawn towards them but I couldn't seem to look away. As the minutes ticked by I could tell that they were looking for something but couldn't seem to find it.

"That's the problem with ant eyes." I said to the wandering group. "You can't exactly see where you're going, you just have to trust that you're going the right way and that whenever you make it to where you need to go that you're alright." My own words surprised me. My commentary about the ants fit so well into my own life. As leader I can't always see what's ahead of me, I just have to keep moving forward and hope that I'm leading my friends in the right direction. "But that's the problem." I said, countering myself. "I don't know where I'm supposed to lead my friends and I don't know what I'm supposed to do when we get there. I'm worried that along the way I might lose another one of them. What if the only way I can get to the end is by letting one of them die?" My head dropped into my hands with those words. "I don't know if I'd ever be able to send one of my friends into a situation knowing that they would for certain die. Even if it were the only way. I'd rather die myself than send one of them to an early grave."

I raised my head to see that one of the ants had walked to me and was attempting to climb my boot to no effect. "Here you go, little guy." I said as I held my finger out to it as it climbed quickly onto my finger. I slowly raised my hand to eye level, examining the ant. "Do you know that you're absolutely terrifying?" I asked the ant as it walked about my hand, trying to figure out where it was. "I have a friend that is completely terrified of you. He can't even stand to look at you anymore. I don't know," I said as I watched the ant walk to the end of my fingertip and stop. "I've always been a little jealous of you guys. You never know where it is you are going or what will happen when you get there. You don't even consider the fact that something will go wrong, you just trust in your queen, your leader to tell you where to go and you just go." I smiled to the ant. "You never question orders or wonder if there's another way besides what your leader told you. You are also flawed in that respect, I guess." I looked down to where the other ants were walking in circles to find something that was simply not there. "You have no free will, no minds of your own. A good soldier must be able to follow orders but must also be able to question why he is following them and wonder if there are the right thing to do." I looked down to the ants and saw a line of them coming out of their mound and into the opposite direction. Watching them for awhile I was shocked by the sheer number of them. I stood up, preparing to continue on my walk. I was about to turn the other direction when I remembered the ant on my hand. He hadn't moved so I had almost forgotten about him. I stepped to where I saw the line of ants going and decided to follow it for a bit, I was slightly curious as to what they were going after. I kneeled down careful as to not crush any of the ants and dropped the ant that was hitching a ride on me to the ground.

It only took me a few steps but I found where the ants were going, it was an old, rotten, hollowed out log lying on the ground. I examined it, the log seemed to be the nest of an animal of some kind. Most likely a fox or a racoon from the size of it. Maybe a skunk, hopefully not, I thought. I sure as hell don't feel like being sprayed right now.

I bent down to look inside the nest, stupid really, I thought. Sticking my head in front of an animal's nest, do I want to get bitten? I peered into the hole to see what the ants were after. It was dark and hard to see but I could see that it was some kind of dead bird. Upon closer inspection I could see that the bird was half eaten by whatever had killed it. I examined the bird in the hole as I watched the ants have a field day. The bird was about twenty inches in length, with white and brown feathers. Looking at the bird I could tell that it was a mess, it's ribs were showing with it's guts ripped out of it's chest. One of it's wings had been ripped off and thrown aside as it had practically no meat on it. It was starting to decay, as far as I could tell. I frowned as I looked at the bird. Over the years I have seen countless dead bodies and killed many myself, but there was something different about seeing an animal to me. The animal's were just living their lives, not trying to kill me as the Yeerks did, it simply did not deserve to die. I know that some people believe that they are just animals and that their lives don't matter, but as a person who has been so many animals I feel a special bond with them. I have seen their world enough to respect them.

I was about to stand up and continue on my walk as something familiar caught my eye, a color. I looked back to the bird to try to find the color I recognized again. There, I thought. Looking to the back of the hole I could see the color that caught my eye. I reached my hand in to grab it, opening my hand I saw a reddish-brown tail feather.

I immediately recognized the feather and threw it from me as if it had burned me. I fumbled back as I tried to get away from the feather. I tripped on my own feet and fell to the ground. The bird that the ants were eating and that I was staring at for the past few minutes was none other than a red-tailed hawk.

"Tobias," I said, breaking my own silence. "I'm sorry. This is all my fault. If it weren't for me you would've never gotten trapped as a hawk. And on the day that you die from it, it will be my fault. You were my friend," I said as my head fell into my hands. "The first time I met you I protected you from those bullies. You had always thanked and respected me for that. You looked up to me as some kind of hero, some kind of mythical being. I was a hero, a savior in your eyes, and what did I do to repay you? I dammed you to a life of an animal. You were a human, therefore you could live your life as you pleased, now you must hunt and fight in order to survive. I know that you have come to terms with your life but… but…" I trailed off as I tried not to cry. "But since that day I haven't been able to look at you without seeing my failures as a leader." I turned my gaze from the hawk and spoke aloud to myself again. "I have failed all of them in some way. My decisions and actions have ruined all of your lives. I'm going to get all of them killed in this war." The words stung as I said them. Admitting it outloud was harder than I thought. "However, if I choose to remain out of the fight then they are sure to all die. But if I am with them then I can protect them and make sure that they live to see end of this blasted war." I thought over what I had said, I knew that I wanted to fight along side with my friends but I didn't know if I could. "Maybe you should just give it a shot." I said to myself. I was surprised by those words, it was as if someone from the outside had said them.

XxxxxXxxxxxX

I looked to my watch, it had been about three hours since I had left Toby and the other Hork-Bajir. It shouldn't be that long to the top, I thought to myself. I'd be there by now if I were in better shape. After not doing anything or going anywhere after six months my body had grown weak. The incline was absolutely terrible and the altitude was killing me. I live around sea level and now I'm over ten thousand feet up, I feel like I'm going to pass out with every step, I couldn't seem to breath enough to fill my lungs.

I sat down on a large mossy rock in order to catch my breath. I wiped the sweat from my face and took a drink from my canteen. As I leaned my head back in order to drink my water I saw a figure fly over me. It was a Northern Harrier, I would recognize Ax's morph anywhere. I continued to drink my water as I watched it fly through the trees to it's nest. In it's talons there looked to be a small mouse. It landed in it's nest not twenty feet to the left of me. It was hard to see it I could see several baby birds in the nest with it. After the mother feed the babies it flew off in search of more food, I watched the nest for a few minutes before I saw one of the babies walk to the edge of the nest and hop on to the side. It opened it's wings as far as they could reach, feeling the breeze under them.

"That's it," I said to the bird. "Feel the breeze, let it guide you." I watched as the bird stood with all the confidence in the world and it jumped from the nest, trying to fly.

Wham! The bird didn't make it more than five feet before it fell. I was sure that the bird would've been hurt so it surprised me when I saw it quickly jump to it's feet as if nothing had happened. I put my water down and got out a granola bar to eat as I watched the nest. The other birds in the nest watched the other bird fall and quickly all climbed to the edge to the nest, as if to prove that they could fly when he could not. I watched and flinched when every one of the birds hit the ground. I looked to the nest to see that one of the birds had not jumped like it's brothers and sisters. I peered over the edge of the nest at them, always making sure not to get too close to the edge.

"What's wrong, little guy?" I asked as I finished my food. "You not going to try to fly like the others? It's certain that you're going to fail but you should try anyway, if not then you'll never be able to leave the nest. If you keep letting your fears control you then you'll never be able to live your life." Wow, I thought. Way to be a hypocrite. You can sit there all day and judge other people but if you never follow your own advice then you're worse than them. "Yeah, yeah, I know." I said to myself. I need to stop letting my fears control my life." I stood up and walked back to the path. "Guess I'll never make it if I keep getting sidetracked like this, I am kinda on a schedule, I need to get back to the others before evening so that they can fly me back to town." I kicked a rock into a nearby stream and watched the water ripple. "So here's a question, who exactly am I talking to?" I asked the woods around me. "Is it the Ellimist or God? Or is there really any difference anymore? With all that I've seen I wouldn't doubt to stand before him when I die."

XxxxxXxxxxX

It had been about twenty minutes since I left the northern harriers, I hadn't made all that much progress. I was following the path when I was suddenly hit with a noxious smell that sent shivers down my spine and my breakfast back into my throat. The smell of fresh blood, a ton of it. The smell of a dead animal. I climbed a large rock to see where the smell was coming from. Through the trees I could see a very large grizzly bear licking its bloody paws as blood dripped from them and stained the ground. All around it I could see a number of mangled and shredded bodies. Looking closer I could see that it was a small pack of wolves. Looking at the bear I could see that it had a deadly fight with the pack but it had managed to kill them all and survive. The bear stood over the bloody bodies of its fallen prey with the eyes of a true predator. It had no emotion, no conscious, it felt no pain or heartache over the lives it had just taken. It had been challenged and there was only one way to respond, destroy the enemy, without mercy. No politics, no showboating, no other reason but to win. I looked to the bear, it wasn't the top apex predator of North America for nothing. At seven feet tall and eight hundred pounds with three inch claws I could see immediately why Rachel loved her bear morph. It was the physical incarnate of power and strength. The grizzly feared nothing, it doesn't even consider losing an option. The grizzly took any challenge, any foe head on.

"I wish I had your confidence." I said quietly to myself. "You fear nothing, and those piles of dead bodies around you are a testament to that." I looked away as the grizzly chomped into a wolf, ripping it's organs from its chest. After a few minutes the bear stood up on all fours walked a few feet away and rubbed its fur on the grass to wipe of the blood and walked away. After the bear walked away I saw something that I thought I imagined, one of the bloody corpses started to move. I walked a few step closer and saw that one of the wolves that the bear didn't eat and just left to die was trying with all its might to get up. The wolf rose to its feet and looked over its pack.

I imagined myself in the wolf's place. Waking to find that your entire pack, your family slaughtered around you. I imagined seeing my friends dead around me, beaten and bloody, as I lived. I couldn't get their ravaged faces out of my mind. My friends, my family, I thought. I couldn't live without you. I breathed in. "But I won't abandon you. I will never forsake any of you."

I watched the wolf limp off as I headed back to the path.

XxxxxXxxxxX

I crossed a small stream and looked ahead of me, I could see the peak of the mountain. I was here, finally here! "Thank God." I said as I ran to the top of the peak. I don't know why I was so excited, I had still had to make my way down the mountain before evening, so I'd barely have any time to rest. I made it to the end of the path to a circle of rocks that Toby had told me about, I left my backpack there and climbed to the top. As I pulled myself up my heart stopped as I saw the view. Standing here one could see for miles in every direction. I felt as if I were standing on top of the world. It felt as if I were not a person living on Earth but someone watching it from afar. Standing over the world I felt the gravity of the world around me. Look, I've flown as a bird and in space ships so it's not like I haven't been higher than this before but it was a completely different feeling standing on a mountaintop as a person. I couldn't see any houses or cities, thanks to the Ellimist setting this place up so that it was far from any people, but I felt as if I were standing in front of the entire population of the world itself.

As I caught my breath from the climb I thought over what Toby and I had talked about me being the _Seer_ of not only my own planet but of every free race in the galaxy. It was a once in a lifetime kind of feeling. Whenever I had thought of it before my body would shake and my mind would go into a panic at the thought of countless lives being in my hands. But now, standing on this mountaintop I felt honored, as if I was proud that the universe had picked me to be the _Seer_ of the entire galaxy. I felt an enormously large wave of calmness wash over me like a river over stone. It was washing away all of my fears and worries and replaced them with courage and strength. I felt all of my energy and strength return as I stood tall over the world.

"Like it or not, Jake," I said to myself with a smile. "This is your life now. This world, all worlds threatened by the Yeerks are all in the palm of your hand. You are their protector, their savior, their _Seer_. And they will look to you to lead them, to show them the way. They will rely on you to be strong when they are weak. They will look to you to be brave when they feel scared. They will look to you to protect them when they cannot." I paused as I held my hands cupped in front of me, as if I were holding all of the world in my hands. "I will always be strong for you. I will always be brave for you." I started to cry tears of joy as I smiled. "I will always protect you, you are all _my_ people, whether you are Human, Hork-Bajir, Taxxon, Gedd, whatever, you are my people, and _I_ am your _Seer_."

XxxxxXxxxxX

"Hey, Toby." I said as I got within earshot of her. Not that she has actual ears. "How's it going?"

She smiled as she saw me, she could tell right away that something in me hand changed. She could tell that I was better. "It is going very well, Jake. How about you, you seem much livelier than you did before."

I smiled as I sat down on a fallen log to catch my breath. "I feel much better. I feel as if an enormous weight has been lifted from my shoulders."

"That is good." She sat next to me on the log. "I was starting to get worried, you should've gotten back a few hours ago. I was about to send some Hork-Bajir to look for you. I was worried that you got injured or lost."

I felt a little embarrassed. "No, I just had a really hard time with the incline and the altitude. I also got distracted several times by my visions as you called them. They-" Toby raised a scaled hand and cut me off.

"Hold on, Jake. Your visions are yours and yours alone. Given to you by Mother Sky and Father Sky for you and you alone. Your visions are just that, yours."

I looked to her with confusion clearly on my face. "You mean that I can't tell anyone about what I saw? Whys that?"

"My people believe that our visions from Mother Sky and Father Deep are meant only for ourselves. Often visions are deeply emotional, so we do not normally talk to other about them. However," She said with a Hork-Bajir smile. "As you know my people, besides me do not understand the concept of embarrassing or personal. So mostly that rule is for me and the _Seers_ before me. But of course you can always do what you please with your visions and tell your friends if you want."

"Ah." I said. "I don't know how much I'll tell them but I do want to talk to them as soon as I can, I really want to see them."

"Then we should be on our way, then." She said as she stood. "If you are ready to continue, that is?"

"Yeah, I'm ready. Ever since I reached the summit I've been filled with energy to spare."

"That is good." She said as she signaled the other Hork-Bajir to get moving. "You will need it to fight the Yeerks."

XxxxxXxxxxX

Since I felt full of energy we were able to increase our speed on the already faster trip down the mountain. Looking at a Hork-Bajir you wouldn't think they were fast but you'd be surprised, they come from a world with fifty mile deep craters in the ground where they lived in their valleys. They lived on a world made completely out of slopes and sheer drops, these mountains were nothing for them. We arrived at the hidden Hork-Bajir valley at around two in the afternoon, an hour and a half ahead of schedule.

Since we had arrived early all I could do was wait for the others to arrive with the Bug Fighter. But I couldn't sit still, I was filled with so much energy and excitement that I couldn't keep still. I had to have lapped the clearing where they were going to land a hundred times. I didn't know what was going on, I was filled with so much energy, more than I've felt in years. It was as if I was a new man. I had no idea what to do with all this energy I had. I felt like I could run a marathon and have enough energy to go on a walk through the woods with my friends afterwards.

Not before long I could see a familiar sight flying past the ridge, their stolen Bug Fighter. They landed in the clearing and lowered the ramp as I walked towards the ship. Marco stepped out first, a huge guilty grin on his face. Then Tobias, Ax, Rachel and finally Cassie.

"Cassie!" I yelled a little too loudly. I ran up to her and as carefully as I could I lifted her up by the waist over my head like in the movies then brought her in for a hug. Now to say that the others were surprised would be a complete understatement. They were all shocked.

"Jake." Cassie yelped. Clearly startled by being lifted in the air. "What are you doing? Are you okay?" She asked with concern in her voice.

"Are you kidding?" I asked with a huge grin. "I'm more than okay! I'm holding the most beautiful girl in the world in my arms!" She was about to open her mouth to say something but I interrupted her with a kiss. Now you have to understand that Cassie and I haven't kissed in half a year, and even when we were dating we just never kissed in front of the others or people in general. If they weren't all surprised earlier they were definitely surprised now.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Marco elbow Rachel in the arm. "What kind of magic mushrooms did they give him? I really want to know. I've gotta try some."

I pulled away from Cassie and let her go. "I heard that, Marco." I said with a smile.

"That's the whole idea, O'Fearless Leader." As soon as those words left his lips everyone froze, including Marco. Months ago after I quit, Marco called me Fearless Leader as a joke and I got so upset that I started screaming at the group. They were all worried that it would happen again.

"I see that you're still as annoying as ever, Marco." I said with a straight face, trying to mess with their heads.

Marco smiled. "And you still have that same old stick up your ass, I see." Marco's been my best friend for years. I couldn't fool him for a second, he could read me better than anyone, besides Cassie of course.

"Jeez, man." I said as I gave him a bro hug. "Do you kiss Melissa with that mouth?"

"Every night." He said with a laugh.

I looked to the group, their jaws were on the floor, awestruck. "How are you doing, man?" I asked Marco.

"Amazing, what would you expect? I just had an amazing date with Melissa last night, I'm on top of the world."

"Jake." Tobias said as he walked up to me in human morph and gave me an awkward hug, Tobias has never been a hugger, and neither have I so it was pretty interesting. "Good to have you back, man."

[I do not understand, Tobias.] Ax said, breaking his own silence. [What do you mean about having Prince Jake back? He has been here since yesterday. Also, what did Marco mean when he said Prince Jake had a stick up his ass?] Ax said with a puzzled look on his face. Well I assume it was a puzzled face, Andalites are not exactly the most emotional species out there, sometimes it was hard to tell.

"What he means Ax," Marco cut in. "Jake has been in a funk for the past few months, we're all glad to see him acting like himself. The answer to your second question is that when Jake was a kid he shoved a stick so far up his ass that it made him lose all sense of humor and made him a total buzzkill." Marco said all of this with a straight face, as if it were all completely true. As he explained it Ax seemed to believe him.

[But why would Prince Jake shove a stick up his-] Cassie interrupted this time.

"Butt." She said, trying to keep some dignity and self restraint to this conversation, but it was already too late. Marco had taught Ax a new word; Ass.

[Butt?] Ax continued. [That does not make any logical sense at all, besides, simply having a stick up one's-]

"Butt." Cassie added again.

[Butt would have no connection whatsoever to the section of their brain that controls emotions and speech in order to lose all sense of humor like you say.]

"Ax," Tobias said, stepping in trying to explain it to Ax. "Marco was just being stupid again, Jake doesn't really have a stick up his a-" Cassie shot him a look. "Butt. It's just a figure of speech." All the while I was standing back and laughing at this scene. It felt like the old days again.

"Hey," Marco said, pretending to look upset. "I'm not stupid. I'm as smart as I am cute." He said as he posed.

"So not at all, you mean?" I asked, breaking my own silence. The others just looked at me and Marco laughed.

"You think you're pretty clever don't ya, Jake? Well if it weren't for a certain pair of innocent and impressionable ears you wouldn't be feeling so cocky."

[Cocky?] Ax asked. [What does that have to do with anything? Are Marco and Prince Jake talking about-] Tobias cut him off.

"Drop it, Ax." He said. "Let's just forget the conversation, alright?"

"What have you been teaching Ax, Marco? Jeez." Marco smiled and opened his mouth to speak but Rachel's voice came out instead.

"So what, you're just going to act normal now like nothing ever happened?" Rachel looked at me like she was trying to figure me out. "You can't just act like a complete dick for six months then come back making jokes acting like nothing happened." Her voice was rising. "What the hell is your problem?"

All laughter turned to silence as everyone looked at Rachel. "Rachel, hold on-" Tobias started but Rachel cut him off.

"No, I'm not just going to hold on." She glared at me, stepping forward and pointing her finger at me. "Do you have any idea what your actions have done to us? You not only quit the team but you also hit Cassie then actually had the audacity to force her to sleep with you. Then you refused to talk to or to see any of us as you became a drunk and a druggy at seventeen. You're only eighteen and you've already fucked up not only your own life but Cassie's and all of ours as well. You go and do all of that and now you actually think that you can just show up after six months, tell a few jokes and put on a fake smile and rejoin _our_ group? Well you're sadly mistaken, because we don't need you, we _never_ needed you."

All the while Rachel was yelling at me her voice was raising and she became angrier and angrier. Just as Cassie was about to step in and say something I cut in. "I deserved that, Rachel. I really did." I gave her a small smile and she turned her head away in disgust. "You're right, I admit it. I've been a complete and total dick these past few months and there's nothing I can say to make it up to you." I looked to the others. "To any of you, for that matter. I've screwed up, I really have, and I know it, and there is no way that I can ever make it up to any of you but I hope that all of you believe me, I mean it."

Rachel looked like she was trying to find something rude to say but she didn't. She just sighed and said; "What the hell am I supposed to say to that?" She dropped her 'I'll kill you with my bare hands' look and attempted a smile. "It's nice to have you back, cuz." As she did something completely unexpected, she stepped in and hugged me. "It's honestly been hell without you." She let go and stepped back, trying to act normal again but Marco found an opening for an attack.

"Heartwarming, Xena. Truly, truly heartwarming. It gives me the feels just watching it. Who knew you had other human emotions besides rage and anger." He pretended to wipe a single fake tear from his eye dramatically.

"Well Jake's family, Marco. Family's different. I just can't stay mad at him forever." She looked at me. "I know that you had your reasons why you acted the way you did. I'm sorry for being such a hardass, Jake."

"And I'm sorry for being a dick." I said with a smile.

We all stood silently for a few seconds taking in all of the progress that our group had just made when Ax broke the silence ruining the moment. [I have a question, Prince Jake.] I looked to him and sighed. He waited patiently for me to ask. When I didn't he spoke; [I was under the impression that you were not all talking about a-]

"Butts." Cassie chimed in.

[Butts and c-] Tobias broke him off.

"Don't say it, Ax. Just drop it, okay."

[But Prince Jake and Rachel were talking about them several times, I was merely-.] This time I broke him off.

"Ax." I said sternly as I placed my hand on his shoulder. "You really need to stop talking now, it's getting inappropriate."

[Inappropriate?] Ax asked. [I do not understand, what is so-.]

"Ax?" I continued.

[Yes, Prince Jake?]

"Two things, first, stop talking about it and drop it. Second," I paused for dramatic effect, I saw the look on Marco's face, he knew where I was going, Ax don't "Don't call me prince."

XxxxxXxxxxX

***Author's Note:***

First off thank you all for reading. This has been my longest chapter of my two stories yet. Fun fact this chapter is actually over double the length of the previous longest chapter in #1: The Revenge. That's not including this section here either.

I spent three all nighters this week in order to get the time to write this much, if you're all interested in longer chapters like this then let me know, I'll work on making them longer, maybe not all as long as this chapter since it is already broken into 3 parts as is.

If you like this story then please, **Favorite** it or leave a **Review** , or **PM** me with feedback.

Also let me know what you thought of this chapter, sorry if it was slow for some of you but not all of them can have huge battles going on (Just wait to the end of this story).

Side Note:

I've been reading some Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist fanfics recently and I wouldn't be opposed to trying some out. That's if any of you'd be interested, that is.

Also, concerning the short One-Shot I promised on my Profile I'm not going to be able to upload one this month. I just didn't have the time. Like I said, I had to pull three all nighters this week in order to have time to write it.

Thanks for reading, leave a **Review** and please **Favorite** , Hephaestus.


	6. Ch6: Tobias: The Bear and the Hawk

Chapter 6: Tobias: The Bear and the Hawk

***Author's Note***

Before I begin I just want to apologize for the late upload, I wanted to upload this Friday or Saturday, not Sunday night. Warning: This chapter contains a little adult material at the end of the chapter. Nothing overboard or anything. Nothing happens so don't get too excited but the characters talk about it at least. While this story is Teen I add some adult themes, mainly the Jake/Cassie scene in the first story, so be warned. I plan on keeping this story Teen but there might come a day in which I change it to Mature just to be safe for most chapters because it'll only be needed in a few chapters.

Thanks for reading and please **PM** me, **Favorite** or leave a **Review**.

* * *

Chapter 6: Tobias: The Bear and the Hawk

***The Day Before***

[How's it going, Ax? Erek?] I asked in thought speak as soon as I got within range. [How's the Bug Fighter's repairs going?]

I landed on a small dead tree not a few feet away from where they were standing, Ax in his Andalite form and Erek in his hologrammed metallic form. They were standing in front of a large table with countless tools and some sort of computer screen on it. I had come to check on them while Toby was trying to talk Jake into rejoining the team, somehow. I was tired after the long flight so I took this chance to catch my breath before I had to morph to human. Since I left before Rachel, Marco and Cassie could leave because Cassie was taking care of Jake because he collapsed I had to fly back to Ax's _scoop_ myself, and not in the Bug Fighter.

"Ah, Tobias, good to see you back." Erek said as he turned to wave. "The progress is going slow on this one, I'm afraid. If you guys hadn't destroyed it so much in order to capture it we would've been done with it already."

[Yeah, sorry about that.] I said sheepishly. [But it did take quite the firefight in order to get it. The Yeerks have started realizing that we've been commandeering their ships for our own use, so they don't exactly let us take them very easily.] I flew to the ground and started to morph to human.

"I understand that but you are the one who came up with the idea to commandeer and use them for ourselves. I'd appreciate if you brought them to me in a little better condition considering we are the ones who have to fix them."

[We'll try, Erek. I promise. I wo-] My thought speak cut off momentarily as I finished morphing to human. I finished my sentence with my human voice. "I won't let Marco fly anymore, I promise."

"See that you don't." He said as he turned back to his work.

[Tobias,] Ax started. [How are you doing? Were you able to get Prince Jake to go to the Hork-Bajir Valley with you?]

"Yeah, Ax." I walked to him and looked at what he was working on before I interrupted him. It looked like some kind of circuit board, but beyond that I had no idea. "Cassie, the others and I were able to talk him into seeing Toby."

[What is Toby planning to do in order to help Prince Jake? You and Cassie have tried everything that you have been able to think of in order to help him, I wonder how she plans on doing it.] I could hear the emotion in his words. Ax has been worried for Jake since he quit the team half a year ago, we all have, but it's been hard for Ax in other ways. Ax calls Jake 'Prince' because 'Prince' is military ranking on his homeworld. Ax believes Jake to be his leader, I mean we all do but for Ax it is different. He follows Jake as a soldier while we follow him as a team. Ax has had a rough time talking about his emotions since Jake left. Andalite's are about the least emotional species I know, Ax has become very human in his actions and thinking since he crash landed on Earth but since Jake quit the team Ax believes that he has failed in someway thinking that Jake left because he couldn't do anything to help his Prince. Not that I haven't tried telling him that Jake left for his own reasons and that he wasn't to blame. He just doesn't believe me.

"I don't know what her plan is. She didn't say." I sighed. "We just have to hope that somehow she'll be able to get through with him."

Ax gave a brief pained expression that he washed from his face quickly. [We Andalite's do not believe in hope. Any other Andalite would've given on Prince Jake a long time ago.]

I looked to him with a reassuring smile. "Well, Ax. You are not your people. You are neither Andalite or Human, you are unique. You are a part of both worlds now, you have experienced enough on Earth to know that Andalites have a lot to learn when it comes to your emotions."

Ax looked like he was going to say something about me basically insulting his entire race but the look disappeared and was replaced by concern. [I just wish that Prince Jake will be able to become himself once again. We need him.]

I sighed and looked at Ax and Erek. "You're right, we all need him."

XxxxxXxxxxX

***About an hour later***

[Must you really be going, Tobias?] Ax asked me as I was getting ready to fly back to the hidden Hork-Bajir Valley to work with some of the Chee there. The meeting was going to go late into the night so I'd be staying the night there in one of the tents the Hork-Bajir had set up for us. For the last few months I've been spending more and more of my nights there working with and going over numbers and plans with the Chee. Much to the dismay of Rachel who has been trying to convince me to 'spend the night' as she calls it. I've told her several times that I've been far too busy and the timing isn't at all great and that we really shouldn't do that anymore, at least until we are married and this war is over. She's not exactly happy at the idea as you could imagine.

Anyway, ever since the Yeerks started accelerating their invasion plan I've been overwhelmed with new reports from both the Chee and the Yeerk Peace Movement who have been sending us information on the Yeerks plans practically every day. It's been more than a little overwhelming, I have no idea how Jake managed to lead this team for as long as he did. I mean he was the leader for over four years, I've only been leading for a few months and I feel like I'm about to die, I just can't handle it anymore. He must really be some kind of superhuman or something in order to have lasted this long as leader. However I am well aware that he hasn't exactly had the best life since this war started. I could only imagine what was going on inside his head, my brief time as leader doesn't even begin to compare.

[Yeah, I do. Sorry Ax. I gotta go talk to some of the Chee about some new reports they got. Believe me, I have a hundred better things to do tonight than go over numbers and data logs and shipping reports, it's not exactly what I call fun.]

[Are you referring to Rachel, Tobias?] I looked to Ax, taken back by his comment. Had he really just said that? I saw that he was smiling with his eyes at me like he knew what I was thinking.

[Bye, Ax-man. See you later.] I said as I flapped to gain altitude. Trying to act like I didn't hear his comment, which is impossible since he said it in thought speak and it was in my head.

XxxxxXxxxxX

I landed in the Hork-Bajir Valley, morphed to human since we'd be going over papers and video logs and I'd need my hands, and walked to the large tent where we would be meeting. Man, I thought. I can't stand these meetings.

"Greetings, Tobias, how are you doing?" Derek, a Chee asked me as I walked in.

"Tobias, good to see you again." Wendy, another Chee called out from the other side of the large wooden table the Hork-Bajir helped set up.

"You are late, again." A snobby voice, Alfred. "Do you not understand the importance of these briefings? How do you expect to stand a chance against the Yeerks if you cannot take something like this seriously?" The whole room looked at him and said nothing. Alfred is a Chee but he's the type of guy that basically no one can stand. He is always rude and aggressive, for a Chee.

"It's good to see you too, Wendy, Derek. Alfred." I nodded towards him in acknowledgement. Even though I can not stand him I still need him for the information that he's able to provide us on the Yeerks. "I'm sorry for being late, I was talking to Ax and Erek at the Scoop and lost track of time. The strong winds and bad thermals didn't help me get here fast either, sorry."

"It is not a problem, we understand. Besides," Derek said as he motioned to my chair at the head of the table. "While these meetings are very important it does not matter what time we have them, as long as we do."

"That is correct, Derek." Wendy said with a hologrammed smile.

"Let's get started, shall we?" I asked as I sat. Everyone in the room looked to me. I looked at the faces looking back at me. Good thing we were holding this meeting in the largest tent, we needed the space. In the room were three Chee, Derek, Wendy and Alfred, two representatives from the Yeerk Peace Movement, or YPM, one Hork-Bajir standing outside as security, even though we were in the safest location on Earth from the Yeerks, and last but not least, myself.

"Let's." Said Wendy.

"About time we started." Alfred of course.

"Wendy," I motioned to her. "You told me the other day that you had some new information for me about Visser Six and Sub-Visser Eighteen?"

"Yes, we have received news from the YPM that Visser Six and Sub-Visser Eighteen have been brought in by the Council of Thirteen to assist Visser Three in his invasion plan."

"Yes, that is true." Mr. Tidwell said, nodding. "They both arrived via Poolship this last Tuesday. Sub-Visser Eighteen brought his own small security squad of Hork-Bajir but Visser Six brought an entire company of new hosts from the Hork-Bajir homeworld. They are all artificially created hosts the Yeerks had the remaining Arn create for them to use."

I looked to him, my eyes blinking unconsciously. "Do you mean like the Jubba-Jubba monster? How were they able to infest them, from what I understand the creatures the Arn created had no real mind to control."

"That was what we were wondering, Tobias." He gestured to Derek. "The Chee believe that the Yeerks had the Arn create a new kind of creature, a Jubba-Jubba monster, as the Hork-Bajir call it, to be able to infest."

"What do they look like?" I asked him. "There are actually several kinds of 'monsters' that the Arn made to patrol the Zone Of Separation on the Hork-Bajir homeworld. The Jubba-Jubba is only the one that they knew anything about, and that information was very limited."

rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I have never seen a Jubba-Jubba or whatever to know if they were one or not but I did happen to see them march off of their landing ship behind Visser Six." He looked over to see the Hork-Bajir standing outside the door to see if it was reacting to what we were talking about, it didn't. This Hork-Bajir had never seen or heard the word Jubba-Jubba before in it's life, it had been born in this Valley and the older Hork-Bajir didn't talk about them. He looked back to us. "They stood around fifteen feet tall, were covered in grey-black armor like scales with long, thick tails, large three fingered hands ending in claws and large heads resembling an alligator or crocodile. They dwarf any and all hosts that the Yeerks currently have, we believe that the Yeerks are going to employ them like tanks. They are very large, insanely strong and slow moving, so we believe that the Yeerks will use them in direct firefights and not stealth missions."

"Insanely strong?" Alfred asked. "I thought that you said that you just happened to see them walk by, how do you know how strong they are?" He asked this as if were either making it up on the spot or lying.

"Well, some of them were carrying cargo and large ship-mounted Dracon Beams as rifles as if they were feathers." He looked to me and handed me a data log. "This is a copy of the cargo manifest that we managed to get." I read through the log as he spoke. "There's nothing unusual in there, mostly Dracon Beams, species specific food, uniforms for controllers who wear them, medical supplies, building and repair items, things of that nature." He paused as he waited for me to look up at him from the data log. "However there is something in there at the end that we brought for the Chee to see."

"Why is that?" Wendy asked.

"Well, because frankly, none of us know what it is." He motioned to the data log. "Normally the manifest is very descriptive about the contents, as in what the item is used for, where it was brought from, and where it is supposed to be used. However this one item in particular has no description except for it's name and it's classification."

"Classification?" I asked as I handed the data log to Derek to look over. "What do you mean?"

"The classification is a ranking we use to separate things like weapons and ships into categories based on how dangerous or classified they are. There are seven classifications for weapons and ships, for example a handheld Dracon Beam is Level One where as a Dracon Assault Cannon is Level Four. A Bug Fighter is Level Five whereas any other ship above that is Level Six or Seven."

"So what level is this new weapon and what is it called?" Alfred asked Derek as he pointed to the data log.

"That's the thing," Mr. Tidwell said, motioning to the data log. "Where the number for the Classification Level is supposed to be is an 'X'. I've never seen any weapon or ship without a number. As for the name I can't read it, it's not Galard or any language I know. Therefore I cannot read it. That's why I was hoping to show it to the Chee to see if they know what it is."

I looked to Derek who was showing the data log to Wendy and Alfred. "Well," I asked. "Do you guys know what it is?" They looked up at me after a few seconds, confusion clearly written on their hologrammed faces. "I'll take that as a no."

"Sorry, Tobias." Wendy said as she grabbed the data log from Derek and handed it to me. "We don't know what it is but the word looks like a form of the Andalite written language, however we don't know for sure. Why don't you ask Aximili?"

I took the log from her hand and answered. "No problem, guys. I don't expect you to know everything that every race in the galaxy has made. I'll ask Ax tomorrow, it's too late to fly back to his _Scoop_ now, he's most likely asleep by now."

"Just make sure to show it to him as soon as possible, we need to know what the Yeerks are bringing in." Wendy replied.

Looking to Mr. Tidwell I asked; "How many of these artificially created hosts did you say Visser Six brought with him?"

He turned to me and answered. "He brought an entire company of those monsters with him."

"But how many creature were there? Generally the numbers between companies can differ from each other." Derek asked.

"That is true," Mr. Tidwell replied. "According to the ships logs Visser Six brought one hundred and twenty of his artificially created hosts with him as his personal security. But as you know one hundred and twenty soldiers is far too large for a mere security force, as that's what the ships logs say they are. We believe that Visser Six has brought this small army as a test, to see if they will be useful to the Yeerks and prove to be successful hosts."

My eyes widened at the news. "One hundred and twenty new giant and powerful hosts, damn…" I trailed off. My mind was racing, thinking of a million things at once. Thinking up ways to find this new Yeerk weapon. Ways to thwart Visser Six's test for these new artificially created hosts. If we manage to beat them then the Council will determine that they are useless and stop their production. Man, I thought, whenever the Yeerks bring new hosts to try out on this planet against us we have to risk our lives to defeat them in order to prove to the Yeerks that they are useless. If the Yeerks think that their hosts can't get the job done then they'll give up on them and go find another. And if we manage that again we will get a little more time to find a way to permanently stop the Yeerks. However, I thought, we can't keep pushing our luck, over the last year or so they have stepped up their invasion attempt considerably and have brought several new host species here to test them out. One by one we managed to defeat them, just managed to skate by on the skin of our teeth. While we have been holding them at bay these past four years we have also shown them that we are a force to be reckoned with. Which is both good and bad, they no longer think of us as just a ragtag group of warriors, they fear us as a strong and powerful military group, which is why they have stepped their game up in order to defeat us. They will stop at nothing in order to defeat us and capture Earth. I looked back up to see that everyone was once again looking at me for guidance, they wanted to know what to do. God, I thought, how in the hell did Jake manage to stand that look for so long?

"Anyway," I said, getting everyone's attention. "I'll talk to Ax and show him the data log tomorrow. In the meantime, Wendy, Derek, Alfred, I need you guys to read through the log again and check for anything else." I looked to and the human controller besides him, they were fighting of yawns, it was late, almost midnight and they still needed to get back to town. "If we're all done here you should all be going, it's late and you need to get back to your families before anyone misses you and notices you're gone, especially the Yeerks."

XxxxxXxxxxX

It's been about forty minutes since everyone left the Valley and I was still awake in my tent going over the stack of notes and papers I had been given by the Chee and YPM. Oh yeah, did I mention that it is after midnight? Well it is and I'm still awake. I understand that I'm pretty much the only one besides Cassie who goes to sleep before midnight on a regular night but you have to understand, unless I'm on a mission I live my life as a hawk, and hawk don't just stay up to stay up, unlike humans we have nothing to do in the dark. So, anyway, I've been going over the notes everyone left me after they all left. My notes were filled with shipping logs, data manifests, host relocations, areas of interest, basically every single piece of information we could get from the Yeerks. And it was my job to go over them, study them and determine what could be useful to us or not. Back in the beginning of this war we never had any sort of information, and when we did it was always limited and they were few and far between. But now, with several Chee posing as controllers and dozens of Yeerks in the YPM spying for us and scraping together every bit of information together about the Yeerks that they can I am constantly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information I'm given every week.

"Gonna be another all nighter." I said to myself outloud as I sat in my tent reading by the one light in my room. "Man, I hate being the leader, how in the hell did Jake manage to do this for so long?"

"Do you always talk to yourself?" A voice. Someone was in my tent, but how? How could I not hear them enter? Damn these pathetic human ears, they're useless. I turned in my chair to see a tall, beautiful blonde girl standing in the doorway. Rachel.

"What are you doing here?" I asked looking at my clock. "It's really late, you should be asleep, not up here in the mountains."

"Well," She said with a little attitude. "Nice to see you too, Tobias. Jeez, is that really how you say thanks to your girlfriend who just flew forty minutes in the dark just to see you?"

"Sorry, Rachel." I said, looking away from my work for a second. "It is nice to see you but you act like we haven't seen each other in months, we were just together earlier today."

"Flying in a stolen spaceship to a secret alien community living in the mountains doesn't count. Besides," She said with a smirk I couldn't place. "I thought that we could use some time to ourselves. We haven't been on a date in a month."

"Sorry about that," I said as I turned back to my work. "But you know how it is, I've been really busy since I took the mantle of leader from Jake. I'll make it up to you after this war is over, I promise."

I didn't hear any reply, nothing at all. I thought that she was angry, I was about to ask when she suddenly sat down in my lap and pressed her body to mine. "I have a way for you to make it up to me now if you want." She looked up to me, I could see her intent in her eyes. I knew exactly what she wanted, why she had come over tonight.

"Sorry, Rach," I started to say. "But I told yo-" She cut me off with a glare.

""I know, I know. You don't want to sleep with me, you don't have to say it." Her face was a combination of anger and disappointment.

"It's not that I don't want to," I corrected her. "It's just that I don't think we should do it now."

She laid her head against my shoulder and spoke. "I don't remember you being so against the idea the first time I asked you, from what I recall you were more than excited and willing." She attempted to grab my hand and place it on her breast, I quickly pulled it away.

"How about you tell the story how it actually happened, huh? It's not like I really had a choice in the matter."

She gave a cute grumpy look. "And what do you mean by that, Tobias?"

I smiled and remembered the first time.

XxxxxXxxxxX

***Flashback***

We were watching TV in Rachel's room when her mom and little sister were gone, like we had a hundred times before, but this time was different. I could tell that there was something different in the air. I could sense there was something going on with Rachel but I couldn't figure it out. I should've figured it out, how she was acting should've given it away. How she wanted me to come over as soon as her family left for the weekend. But I didn't.

We were watching TV in her room, talking about nothing important, I could hear the nervousness in her voice as we talked, but I couldn't figure out why she was acting the way she was. Not after long she told me to pause the movie because she had to go to the bathroom, so I did. She went into her bathroom that connected to her room and I sat there on her bed waiting for her to come back. She had for some reason insisted that I wear some 'regular' clothes as she called them, tonight. At the time I couldn't figure out why she had.

So I sat there on her large, comfortable bed waiting for her to come out when she suddenly threw the bathroom door open and posed in the doorway, completely butt naked to be clear. I just stared at her beautiful fully naked body. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. Her skin seemed to shine like a diamond. Her wonderful curves, oh her curves, I couldn't keep them out of my mind. She smiled seductively and without warning she ran across the room to me and jumped into my lap pushing me back onto her bed. She frantically began to pull my shirt off before I could say a word. She kissed me like she never had before, I could barely take it anymore.

She paused her kiss so that she could speak. "Hap, happy birthday, Tobias." She said, out of breath from kissing.

XxxxxXxxxxX

***Back to yesterday***

"Well," She said, clearly upset as she got off my lap and walked to the door but stopping before leaving. "I'm sorry to hear that you were so against the idea. If I would've known that you didn't want to sleep with me then I would've never done that."

I rose to face her. "Rach, wait-" She cut me off.

"Don't Rach me." She crossed her arms and anger spread across her face. "What, do you expect some other hot blonde girl to stumble in here tonight and want to sleep with you? Because I'm sorry to break your bubble but that's not going to happen."

"Rach," I said, trying to calm her down. "Hold on."

"No, I'm not going to hold on. What, is it me? Do you have something against being with me? Do you not like me anymore or something?" Her face was brimming with anger but hiding behind it I could see tears forming.

"What are you talking about, Rach?" I asked, shocked.

"Don't act dumb, Tobias, I've not stupid. I've seen how we've been pulling apart the past few months. And I for sure know that it's not me, I'm still the same, you've been the one who's changed."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, a little upset.

Her face grew angrier. "What I mean is that I've noticed how you've started to ignore me. Ever since you became leader you've become a different person, we've gotten in much more fights than we ever had. Recently you've begun to lose your patience with me, we'll be talking and you'll just snap and yell at me or tell me to shut up. You never did that before. And now whenever I want to go on a date, or hang out, or do… this, you never want to. You always say that we shouldn't. Is that really how you feel or do you just not want not be with me?" She paused and as soon as she did tears erupted from her face. "Is that it, Tobias?" She asked, sobbing, all anger in her voice disappeared and was replaced with sadness. "Do you not love me anymore?"

I stood there for a few seconds silent and still. Had she really just said that?

When I didn't reply for a few seconds she turned around to leave but before she did I reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Rach." I said.

"Let go of me." She said as she tried to pull away.

I tightened my grip on her arm and pulled her into my arms. "Rach," I said before I kissed her. "You don't know how incredibly wrong you are, I could never and would never stop loving you. You are my entire world. Even if I have been changed by this war my feelings for you will never change." I held her in my arms and buried my face in her silky hair. "The reason that I don't want to sleep with you now is because I want to wait until we are married and this war is over, no other reason. I know that we already did but I think that we should wait." I paused for a few seconds and held her. "I want you to know that you'll never have to worry if I love you or not, I will always love you."

Rachel gasped and her muscles tightened and I could feel her body shaking. She was crying so hard she was shaking. "I, I was worried that you were beginning to love someone else." She said, her voice broken, as if it had hurt to say the words.

"Never." I said as I rubbed her head for comfort. "Never in a million years. You're the only girl I've ever and will ever love."

Rachel and I sat in the tent for several hours in each other's arms. Not wanting to let go, not wanting to lose the sensation of the other. After a while she got up and said that she needed to get home before her mom and sisters got home in the morning. I kissed her goodbye as she left and I morphed back to hawk and fell asleep.

XxxxxXxxxxX

***Author's Notes***

Thank you all for reading, I want to apologize for the late chapter. I have no real excuses outside of a different work schedule and being lazy. I was planning on skipping an upload this week because of the amount of time I had spent on the last chapter but I decided against it, isn't that good news?

Anyway thanks for reading. Please do me the honor of reading the first part to this story if you haven't already and tell me what you think of it. It really helps to know what you guys like and don't like about my stories.

I said this last time but I didn't get any word back, I've been reading a lot of Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist Fanfics and was wondering if you guys would be interested in any of those. No promises yet but if I get TWO people saying that they would like some then I'll work on some and upload a one-shot asap. But if I don't get any feedback then I'll think that you don't want them and I won't write any.

Thanks for reading, Hephaestus.


	7. Ch7: Jake: What I Carry

Chapter 7: Jake: What I Carry

 *****Author's Note*****

I first want to start of by apologizing for taking a break from this story. I am very sorry for not keeping up with it. If you like it then please show me that you do and **Review** , **Favorite** and **Follow**. If I don't get any support for this story then I can only assume that you guys don't like this story.

 **A Special Thanks:**

I want to give a massive thanks and shout out to my first supporter of this series, and ultimately the reason why I'm continuing this series. Thank you **Nerdiest999** for all your support from the beginning, you can never know what it means to me to have someone like my writing like this. I will keep writing this story until the end, and whether or not I make a third story to follow up on this one is up to everyone on here. If people show support to this story then I'll continue it.

Please let me know what you think of this chapter. I put as much time into it as possible, as I had very little. Please let me know if you like it.

One last thing before I begin, in order to show my thanks to Nerdiest999 I am asking all of you reading this right now to go over on to Wattpad and check out Nerdiest999's original story. It is entitled **Sci Fighters**. To my knowledge only the first chapter is out now but it's a story that I recommend for anyone out there looking to follow along with an original story as it's being written. Please go over there right now and show your support and your thanks, you can come back and read this chapter right after. If it weren't for Nerdiest999 then this series would've been over. So if you like this series then please show your thanks to the person responsible for keeping it going.

That is all, Hephaestus out.

* * *

Chapter 7: Jake: What I Carry

"You really don't have to do this, you know."

"I know that I don't have to, I want to." I replied. I looked over my shoulder and smiled at Cassie. She had been complaining that her feet were hurting a bit from walking around the Valley today so I offered to massage her feet. At first she tried to say that she was fine and that I didn't need to do it but I could tell that her feet were really hurting. So now, a half and an hour later I'm still sitting here on her bed massaging her feet.

"Does that feel good? Does it help?"

She smiled as she tried to hide the fact that I suck at massages and I wasn't helping at all. "Yeah, it does." Her face winced as I massaged her sore feet. It was clear that I wasn't actually helping her but she didn't say anything about it.

"Let me know when you want me to stop." I said, trying to hint that she could just ask me to stop as I was hurting her feet more.

"I never want you to stop." She said, when I heard this I thought for a second that she was only saying it to be nice and not hurt my feelings about me being terrible at massaging, but when I saw her face I knew what she meant.

"I could let you massage my feet for ever. I just love it."

I gave her a look of skepticism. "You don't have to put on an act for me, Cass. I know that my feet massaging abilities are absolutely horrid at best. You don't have to act like you like it just to make me happy."

"I don't disagree with you there, Jake. You're feet massaging is terrible." She sent a playful smile my way. "I just love seeing this side of you again. You're acting like yourself again. I also love the fact that you're willing to touch my smelly, gross, swollen feet like it's nothing."

"Oh, is that it?" I asked giving her a smile back. 'You sure that it's not my amazing massaging skills?"

"Not even close, Jake." She laughed. "Now you better get better at massaging my feet soon."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because this is going to become a regular thing. If you're going to be coming over and spending time with me like this then you're going to be useful and massage my feet."

I was just about to open my mouth to reply with a remark but I was interrupted by a knock on Cassie's door.

"Cassie?" Her mom's voice. "It's me. Can I talk to you for a sec?"

Cassie gave me a look, she didn't seem very thrilled about her mom coming and talking to her, I didn't know why.

"Of course," She replied. "By the way, Jake's here too."

Her mom opened the door and let herself in. As she did she gave me a big smile and pulled me in for a hug.

"I knew that he was here, it is my house after all, people just can't come and go as they please." She let go of me and I sat back down next to a laid down Cassie. "

"But he's always welcome here, you know that right, Jake?"

"Of course, Michelle." I answered quickly.

Cassie's mom gave her a smile as she saw her lying on her bed with her feet up as I attempted, very badly I might add, to massage them.

"I'm glad to see you in bed, Cassie, because as of today you are officially bedridden. You are now officially at eight months, the baby could come any day now, considering premature births are common in younger mothers. You won't be allowed to come and go as you please anymore. If you wish to leave then it must be with your father or I so that we can watch you and help you."

I saw Cassie's reaction on her face, she seemed to expect it but wasn't exactly happy about it.

"There's no way that I can get out of this, is there?" She asked her mom. Her mom gave a smile.

"Nope, there's no way around it. Like it or not I'm your mother, and as your mother I know what's best for you and your baby. Even if I would've liked the become a grandmother in a couple of more years I will still do everything in my power to help you and your baby."

Cassie pulled her feet from my horrid massaging and sat up on her bed. Her belly rounded and taking up most of the space on her lap.

"I told you mom that I was fine with just the doctor, I don't need you sticking your nose in every five minutes."

I turned to see her mom's response. "Well no offense to your doctor but I've met the man and did some checking, I've helped deliver more babies than him, by a long shot." Her mom gave a boastful smile.

"Yeah but none of those babies were human babies, mom. Animal's are completely different."

Her mom replied. "In many ways they're different and in many other ways they're the same, Cassie. Let's not forget who here has given birth and helped deliver the most babies, that would be me." Her mom walked over and sat next to us on the bed.

"Like it or not I'm the closest thing to a human doctor within a few miles of the house. Starting next week I'm going to be taking some time off so that I can be home with you twentyfour-seven so I can help you and be here just in case anything happens."

"That sounds great." Cassie said with a sarcastic tone. She wasn't exactly thrilled about being followed around like a helpless child for another month until the baby comes.

"Don't give me any attitude, young lady." Her mom said jokingly. "Because I'm the one who decides what you do at all times of the day. I'm also the one who decides who came come over and for how long." Her mom gave a look towards me. "If you don't do as I say then say goodbye to Jake here because I just won't let you see him until the baby's here."

"You can't do that." Cassie cried out. "I need him here."

"Don't worry, baby." Her mom reassured her. "I wouldn't do that. I was just messing with you."

Her mom gave me a look. "Speaking about the baby," She said. "Have you told Jake whether it's a boy or a girl yet? I know that we've known for awhile now, but does he know?"

I shook my head in response. "I don't know." I said simply. "I told Cassie earlier that I didn't want to know, it's going to be a surprise. I'm going to have to wait until it's born to find out." I decided not to mention the fact that up until a while ago I didn't care about knowing. When Cassie first told me she was pregnant I told her that I wanted nothing to do with it. Now I've changed how I'm thinking of the baby, it's no longer just 'her baby', it's 'our baby'.

"Well that's not something that at least I hear about too often, but it's your choice whether or not you know to begin with."

Cassie's mom, Michelle and Cassie sat and talked about preparing for the baby, a new diet that Cassie was going to be eating, much to her displeasure, proper exercise and so on. I tuned most of it out, I was going over something big in my head, something that I knew that I needed to say.

"Hey Michelle, is Walter here?" I asked out of the blue, interrupting their conversation about the proper way to sit up to best support the baby and be comfortable for Cassie.

"Why do you ask, Jake?" Her mom gave a questioning look. "You tired of our pregnancy talk already? You might want to get more used to hearing it, you're going to be surrounded by it for awhile."

"That's not it." I said. "I just need to talk to you two about something. Is he here?"

Her mom gave a concerned look for a second then smiled.

"He's in the barn, you can go get him if you like. We can all talk in here if you want."

"Actually I was hoping that we three could talk in private." Cassie gave me a look.

"Why in private?" She asked. "If you have something to say then you should say it to me too."

"Don't worry, Cass." I tried to reassure her. It wasn't really working. "You already know, I just need to tell them something."

"It's not anything I need to worry about is it?" She asked.

"Of course not, Cass. Don't worry about it." I held her hand to comfort her. I was going to kiss her instead but I thought twice since her mom was just a foot away.

"Don't worry about it, Cassie." Her mom said. "This is Jake, if you can't trust him with something as simple as this then you don't give him enough credit. I bet it's nothing."

"She's right." I agreed. "You have nothing to worry about."

I gave Cassie a hug goodbye and headed out the room with her mom. It would be a short while before I saw Cassie again, I hoped that it wouldn't be long but I wasn't holding my breath. What I was about to do needed to be done with the utmost precision and delicateness. I had to watch my footing.

XxxxxXxxxxX

"So I'm guessing that you're all wondering why I asked you all here." I looked to the room around me and looked at the four adults watching me with eyes of curiosity and worry.

"I, uh, wanted, uh-" I was having trouble thinking, I had thought it all out ahead of time what I was going to say but now that it was actually the time to say it my mind went blank.

"Just come out and say it, son." Walter, Cassie's dad said. "There's no need to be nervous." My dad gave gave Walter a look his way.

"Oh sorry, Steve. I know he's your son and all, just a force of habit."

"No problem, Walter." My dad replied. "With as much time as he's spent here over the years you could easily say that he's as much your son as he is mine." The two dads looked to each other and laughed.

"Then what would you say to letting me borrow him for awhile? With Cassie out of commision for awhile I'm going to need some help with the clinic and the animals."

My dad laughed in response.

"You can adopt him for all I care, he doesn't do any work around the house anymore. I could turn his room into a new office."

"It's a deal then." Cassie's dad laughed. "Honey," He turned to his wife. "Let's draw up the papers right now. What do you think?"

Cassie's mom gave her husband a look. "I think that we should listen to what Jake has to say, it seemed important." In a second all eyes were on me again, great, I thought, I hadn't had time to think about what I was going to say.

"Thanks, Michelle." I said with a reluctant smile. This wasn't something that I necessarily wanted to do per say but something that I knew that I needed to do. I took in a deep breath and used my four plus years of practice to wash my fears and worries away and focus on the task at hand.

"I asked you all here to apologize for what I have done to Cassie and tell you what happened between us." This removed all the smiles on the faces in the room and sucked the laughter away. The entire room was staring at me.

"Jake," Cassie's mom began. "You don't have to apologize or tell us anything, what happened between you and Cassie is your business. Walter and I could never be upset with you, because we know how much you love and care for Cassie."

"That's right, Jake." Her dad, Walter joined in. "Besides, we already know what happened, you don't need to tell us." He attempted a smile but forgot it when he saw my face.

"I figured that you'd say something like that." I said looking to Cassie's parents. "But you're wrong, you don't know everything, and I do _need_ to tell you what happened."

"What are you talking about, Jake?" My dad asked, sending a look to my mom. They didn't know what I was going to say either, on one besides me did.

"I'm talking about what happened between Cassie and I. Why for the past several months we've-, no I've, been distant. What happened between us at the hospital and how she became pregnant." I watched the adult's faces squirm as I said this. They were not expecting this. The parents were nervous and most likely a little uncomfortable, they didn't want to hear in detail how I got Cassie pregnant.

I received no verbal response from the parents so I continued.

"As you know, after Tom and I were attacked," I paused momentarily to collect myself. "We were taken to the hospital. On the way there my friends and I were told that he was dead from the paramedic. I, I was so lost. My mind was in shambles, I saw my own brother die brutally in front of me."

I noted my parents faces, my mom was starting to cry at hearing my words, my dad was doing the best to comfort her.

"I saw him die before my eyes. I then killed D-, his unknown murderer and carried Tom for several blocks until Cassie and my friend's found us." I had almost slipped up and named David as his murderer. That was something that I couldn't tell them, ever.

"I couldn't think, my mind was shattered. I, I blamed myself for Tom's death. I still in some ways do, and I was a mess because of it. Cassie had tried to comfort me at the hospital but we got in an argument. I was upset and I took it out on Cassie. And in my anger I slapped her." I watched my parent's eyes drop. They knew about it but they nor I have brought it up since. I wouldn't talk about it.

"I hurt her." I continued. "I did something that I swore that I'd never do, I hurt the one person that I love in this world." Cassie's mom reacted when I said this. She smiled whenever I talked about how I felt for her daughter.

"And because of what I did to her at the hospital I fell even lower. My parents can tell you that themselves. I was overwhelmed by so much pain and agony that I felt that I needed to find a way to numb the pain and feelings that I felt inside. So I turned to alcohol at first, in attempt to make me forget what had happened. Needless to say that it didn't help, it only made things with my parents and everyone worse. Not soon after that I started to take medications to do what the alcohol wouldn't do for me, get rid of the pain I felt."

I looked up and saw the parents sit quietly in their chairs, not saying a word. Not wanting to interrupt but wanting to hear what I had to say.

"It was at that point when one night I went over to Cassie's house to take some painkillers from your clinic." I said to her parents as mine watched me.

"I knew that you had tonnes of painkillers for your animal's so I decided to take some. It was then when Cassie found me in your barn." I paused, I had never liked thinking about what happened that night, some of it was still a blur, mostly what we said, but I knew what happened, I knew what I had done. I could never forget that.

"I was drunk when she found me, sifting through the medications. She asked what I was doing there. Now I can't remember what was said word for word but here's the gist." I took a breath, it was now or never.

"In my drunken state I talked her into sleeping with me, but before anything happened she stopped me. Saying that she didn't want to do it." I saw her dad's eyes light up, he was catching on to what I was saying.

"She wanted to stop, but I was so drunk that I wasn't think straight. I ended up holding her down as I yelled at her. She was so scared, scared of me. I remember that look in her eye, I couldn't get it out of my head for months." I held up my hands and glared at them as if they were to blame.

"I, I ended up forcing her to sleep with me that night. I held her down as I went. I, I hurt her that night more than ever before." I lowered my head and dropped it into my hands. Trying to hold back the urge to cry and lash out at the thought of hurting her that night.

We sat in silence for a minute. The parents coming to terms with what I said and me wishing that I could forget.

It was Cassie's father Walter who broke the silence.

"You, you raped my daughter!" He yelled, standing up and stepping towards me. My father instinctively stood in between us, taking a defensive stance. My father, the kind-hearted doctor stood as if he were to fight.

"Out of my way, Steve." Her father mumbled. "I'm trying to talk to your son."

"Well you can do that from your seat." My father replied back. "You're not taking another step towards my son."

Her father gestured his hand towards me. "You heard what he said, right? Your son said that he forced my daughter to sleep with him. That's clearly rape in my book."

"Hold on, dear." Cassie's mom Michelle said as she held his arm. "Clearly Jake feels terrible about it, he's been gone for months. He obviously didn't mean to. He loves our daughter, you can see that can't you?"

I watched as her father lowered his hand and took a small step back. Her mom continued.

"And look at Cassie." She gestured up the stairs to her room. "She obviously doesn't see it that way, she still loves him and acts like nothing happened." Cassie's mom turned her head to look at me past the two men standing in between us.

"I can see the way my daughter looks at you, she loves you more than life itself. It's clear to me that she doesn't blame you for what happened. And I'm pretty sure that she'd love it if you stopped punishing yourself because of it."

"Is that what you've been doing, Jake?" It was my mom's turn to speak. "Is this why you've been so distant for so long? It's not just because of Tom?" I nodded in reply.

I looked from everyone's eyes to Cassie's dad.

"I am truly sorry for everything that I have done to Cassie. I know that it will never go away and it's something that I'm prepared to live with for the rest of my life. I have spent countless nights wishing that I could take that night back, that I could take everything that I've done to hurt her away. But I can't." I said simply.

"And I know that none of you will ever forgive me for what I have done either." I looked to Cassie's parents.

"I will completely understand if you wish that I never come back here ad see Cassie again. If you wish, then I will leave and I will never see Cassie again. I was aware of what might happen if I told you this. That, that is why I wished to distance myself from her and her child, I knew that because of what I've done that I might never see them again."

I sat tall in my seat and remained stoic to their looks. I was very well expecting to be kicked out of their house right there and then, never to see Cassie or the unborn baby again.

I saw Cassie's dad slump back into his seat, his wife sitting next to him, their hands conjoined. My dad sat back down as well.

"Is that true?" Her dad asked. "Would you really my daughter and her child if I asked?" His wife sent him a look but remained silent.

"Yes." I replied simply.

"Why?" He asked. I couldn't place his tone.

"Because I love her."

"If you'll leave her then you don't love her enough." His words caught the room's attention.

"What?" I asked questioningly.

"If you truly leave my daughter then you don't love her. Simple as that. If you love her then you'll stay by her side forever."

I sat motionless, I hadn't expected this. "But I thought that you wouldn't want me to-, I just want to do what's best for her. I love your daughter, I want to be with her."

Cassie's dad stood again, relaxed this time and stepped towards me.

"If you truly want what's best for my girl then you'll stay with her and help her raise _your_ child." I heard how much he stressed 'your'. I was surprised, I didn't think that he'd let me be with her.

"What?" I asked, confused.

Cassie's mom stepped in the conversation again.

"What I think my husbands trying to say is that if you truly love our daughter, and I know that you do, that you wouldn't leave her. You know how hard these past eight months have been on her. Could you even imagine how she would feel if you left her and never saw her again? It would break her heart. Not only affecting her but her baby as well."

"I, I know that my not being there would hurt her, it has already hurt her before. I never want to hurt her again."

Her father placed his hand on my shoulder and gave me a smile.

"Then forget all this nonsense of beating yourself up for what you did in the past. Go up there and tell her that you love her."

Her mom stepped towards me as well.

"I'm sure that she heard us as we were talking, she must be worried out of her mind. She might think that you're leaving for good." She smiled.

"You should go up there and tell her that you'll never leave her."

I turned to my parents. My father nodded.

"I think that you should make the decision for yourself. It is clear to everyone here how you feel for her. We're your parents, if you wish to be with her then we have to agree."

"Speaking of whom," Cassie's mom said. "We should really let him go see her."

I nodded and turned to head to the stairs when her dad stopped me.

"Before you go I have a question first." His complexion was serious.

"When are you planning on marrying my daughter?"

* * *

***Author's Note***

Thanks so much for reading. I'm so very sorry for taking a few weeks off from uploading this chapter. I got carried away with my Naruto story. A thousand apologies.

I just want to say that if you like this story then please support it, please show me that you like it and Review, Favorite, and Follow. Every small bit helps, believe me.

One last big thanks to Nerdiest999 for getting me back into writing this story. If it weren't for Nerdiest999 then this chapter wouldn't be coming out. Please send a huge thanks Nerdiest999's way, Nerdiest999 really deserves a big thanks for keeping this story alive.

Again, please check out Nerdiest999's original story called Sci Fighters over on Wattpad. I have no idea if I'm supposed to advertise another site on here but I'm going to anyway. Show your support, it's what every writer wants.

Thanks, until next time, this has been HephaestusBuilds.


	8. Ch8: Jake:The Leader Returns

Chapter 8: Jake: The Leader Returns

***Author's Note***

Thanks for reading, please **Review** , **Favorite** and **Follow** both I and this story, it really helps.

Please excuse if anywhere in this chapter if 'Cassie' is written as 'Casie'. For some reason Google Docs decided to auto correct her name to 'Casie' without my realizing it. I'm pretty sure that I fixed it and that I fixed the spelling of her name throughout the whole chapter. Also please excuse any typos or missing words in this chapter as well. I know that it's not professional but I had to rush to get this chapter out because of my crazy work schedule this week. I had no time to work on it Thursday as I had to go to bed right when I got home because I had to open the next day at 6:30. I also had to close as well, so I ended up working 15 hours straight through. We had a large building wide event as well. So I apologize for getting this chapter out so late. Many apologies.

Until next time, this has been HephaestusBuilds.

* * *

Chapter 8: Jake: The Leader Returns

I nodded and turned to head to the stairs when her dad stopped me.

"Before you go I have a question first." His complexion was serious.

"When are you planning on marrying my daughter?"

Cassie's dad's words stopped me in my tracks. I paused mid stride and froze, my breathing stopped as well. After a few seconds I turned to them and took a deep breath.

"We uh, haven't talked about it. I mean, I know that she wants me to but-." I trailed off and Cassie's mom Michelle cut in.

"Walter, calm down a second. We don't need to rush things, let the kids move in their own time. We should let them go at their own pace, we owe them that much."

My mom nodded. "I agree, Jake's just now coming to terms with what happened, we shouldn't rush them. I'm sure that when the time comes that what's supposed to happen will happen."

"They're still young, they have plenty of time to get married." My dad said, joining in on the new topic.

"I know that." Water said. "I was just hoping that you'd consider marrying my daughter before the baby comes, so that when it's born you and Cassie will be married and it's legal parents. I know that this pregnancy has been hard on you in particular but you need to take some action and take the next step. Cassie is about to graduate and as far as I know you dropped out, there is nothing stopping you from getting married."

The parents talked amongst themselves for awhile about it before I was sent to go talk to Cassie about what happened and to reassure her that everything was fine. As we were sure that she had heard the yelling earlier.

"Hey, Cass?" I asked as I lightly knocked on the door to her room. "It's me, can I come in?" I didn't wait for an answer and I slowly opened the door, and when I did I was faced with something that I wasn't expecting and that I had never seen before, it made me laugh.

I stepped through the door and I watched as a pregnant Cassie was sitting on her bed as she tried as hard ad she could to reach her feet but her over-inflated stomach was blocking her. I couldn't help but smile and laugh as I watched her struggle so much just to put her socks on.

When she saw me come in and caught me laughing at her predicament she got comically upset at me. She grabbed a pillow and threw it at me.

"Don't you laugh at me, Jake. It's hard enough to put on my socks without having you laugh at my expense from the doorway." I walked to the bed and sat next to her.

"I'm sorry, Cass." I said as I tried to stop my laughter. "I know that it's a pain, here, let me help." I took the socks from her hands and started putting them on her swollen feet.

Cassie turned to me, I could tell that she was wondering what happened downstairs.

"So," She started. "What did you have to talk about with my parents?"

"I told them what happened between us in the hospital and in the barn." I answered honestly as I helped her but on her other sock. Her eyes widened from shock, her mouth shot open.

"You what?" She asked. "Really? Why? How'd it go? What did my parents say?" She was throwing out rapid fire questions and I had to put my hand up so that I could talk.

"It actually went better than I expected. They obviously went exactly happy but I'm still allowed within a hundred feet of you so Id say that it went well." Cassie gave me a look.

"Really? Tell me exactly what happened. I heard my dad yelling earlier, I was going to try to sneak a listen into what was going on but I figured it best for me to stay away and keep my distance. I figured that my parents would want me to stay in here, I'm trying to stay on their good sides until the baby comes so that they give me some space and don't harass me every few minutes about something."

I let out a sigh and told her what happened.

XxxxxXxxxxX

"Can you help me put on my shoes too, Jake?" Cassie asked as we just finished talking about what the parents and I had talked about.

"Help me up too, would you?" She reached out her hands to me and I pulled her to a sitting position on her bed. I turned to her shoe rack in her closet when I paused.

"Your shoes?" I asked. "Why do you need your shoes? Are you going anywhere?" I was saddened to think of this, if she were going anywhere then most likely it'd be a doctor's appointment or the like. I don't make it a habit to go to any of them, in fact I've never been to a single one. Not that I really ever had a reason or needing to go to one. According to Cassie she signed us up for some parenting classes at the hospital later in the month. She of course didn't ask me ahead of time, when I asked about it after she told me she said that I didn't have a choice and that if I didn't want to attend a parenting class then I shouldn't have gotten her pregnant. She had me there.

"Just out in the backyard." She smiled. I knew that look, she couldn't hide anything from me, she was planning something and doing a terrible job at hiding that fact.

"What is it?" I asked as I grabbed her shoes and put them next to her feet.

"If you don't wanna tell me then I won't help you put your shoes on, I'll just go down there and find out myself. I'm pretty sure that I'd be able to make it down there and find out before you can even get off the bed." I laughed in good fun. She gave me a look and pouted.

"I'm not that bad yet, Jake. Give me some credit here, I can still get around on my own here." I watched as she struggled to prove it and put her shoes on. She couldn't even reach her shoes because of her stomach. I tried not to laugh again.

"Says the one who can't even put on her own shoes. Here, let me help. If it's a surprise then I won't ask anymore." Her eyes lit up.

"So it is a surprise? Cass, you know how I feel about being surprised, just tell me now, I'll make sure and act surprised when we get done there, I promise."

She let out a small laugh and smiled. "It's called a surprise for a reason, Jake. I'm not just going to tell you what it is, that's the whole point. But I will tell you that my parents won't be there for it, they have to go the hospital to talk to my doctor." I raised an eyebrow.

"So it'll just be us?" I asked and little wearily. I have been getting better at being with Cassie but I still get a sick feeling at the pit of my stomach whenever we're at one of our houses alone.

She smiled. "In a matter of speaking, yes, but don't worry. You'll definitely have a good time, believe me." My mood lightened and I smiled as well. No purpose in worrying her, if this'll make her happy then how could I take that from her?

I helped Cassie down the stairs, the whole way she kept saying that I didn't need to hover around her for every little thing. I know that she's right but I worry for her whenever she does something. I try not to worry but I have more than enough experience at worrying. Almost five years of experiencing worry, it's something that can destroy you inside, eat you away. Something that will keep you awake for days on end. Something that I've been living with for this entire war, and now something that I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life with Cassie and the baby.

We made our way through the dining room to the kitchen back door that connects to the back yard. The blinds were drawn so I couldn't see outside. I looked to Cassie and she nodded, giving me the good to go to open the blinds and go outside.

I stepped through the doorway and was immediately blinded by the sun, I squinted my eyes to see my friend's standing and running around the back yard. Marco was at the grill trying to make it look like he wasn't burning the food, Rachel and Tobias were trying to show Ax how to play frisbee in his human morph, it didn't look like it was going too well. Erek the Chee was setting up some plates at the picnic table just a few feet away, he sent me a wave when he saw me.

When I saw all my friend's at the same time my eyes started to tear up a little. I tried to hide it and pretend that it was from the sun but Cassie knew what I was doing, I couldn't hide anything from her.

"It's great to see everyone together again after so long, isn't it?" She hugged me from the side and called everyone together. Marco pulled the hotdogs and burgers off the grill and headed over. Rachel and Tobias called Ax who was a dozen yards away running after the frisbee. When he saw me he instantly forgot his objective and ran to me as fast as his human legs would allow. He almost tripped over himself several times as he ran. When he reached me he immediately attempted to do a sort of bowing thing but found it impossible to do with only two legs, he raised one arm to his heaving chest and performed some sort of salute or something that I've never seen before. I was a little taken back, he normally didn't act like this, it surprised me to say the least.

"Price Jake," He started, still trying to catch his breath from his mad dash to reach me.

"I am relieved to see you and to hear that you will once again be taking command of our team." He stood straight as a board and composed himself.

"It would be an honor to serve under you once again, Prince Jake. With your permission I will return to your command."

I smiled to Cassie and tried to hold up my hand to Ax letting him know to calm down but he didn't seem to notice.

"It's good to see you too, Ax. I know that it's been awhile, and I'm sorry for that." I gave him a reassuring smile.

"I am going to be becoming leader again but let's slow your roll, okay? I haven't even heard how you guys are standing with the Yeerks right now. And about you becoming my subboardnant again I told you already, you are my friend first, soldier second, okay Ax? I would be honored for you to serve under me again, but do it as a friend, not a soldier."

Ax let out a big toothy smile and attempted to give me a hug, somehow after all his years of practice he's still uncomfortable and uneasy in his human form.

"I am just very excited to hear that you'll once again be joining our fight against the Yeerks, Prince Jake. I am very sorry if I have made you uncomfortable by hugging you." He pulled away and tried to smile.

"Don't worry about it, Ax." I assured him.

"I know that we're technically not in public but could you please be careful about screaming 'Prince Jake' at the top of your lungs?"

"Of course, Prince Jake." Ax replied with a smile. I was beginning to remember this routine.

I turned to face Cassie. "What's the occasion of everyone coming together like this?"

She smiled. "It's a very special anniversary, Jake." I raised an eyebrow, confused. "It's a bit off but were celebrating our five long years of being a team. It's the fifth year anniversary of the Animorphs." My eyes widened, had it really been that long? Had I really not noticed that it has been five years?

"Wow." Rachel said. "It kinda makes you feel old, huh?" I gave her a knowing look.

"You have no idea." I muttered. "I feel like I'm forty whenever I go to stand. I'm too young to be getting old."

"Anyways," I said to the group as a whole.

"Why don't we eat? I'm sure that Marco would love for us to try his world famous overcooked and burned burgers." The group except Ax and Marco laughed. Marco grabbed his chest as if he'd been stabbed and let out a groan of pain.

"Oh man, that's just too far." Acted as if he were crying.

"You never insult another man's grilling, that's just a cardinal rule of bro-ship."

"Bro-ship? Really?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, bro-ship, it's a thing Rachel, I mind you. It's written right there in the Broble." He replied as he placed a tray full of delicious looking burgers and hot dogs on the center of the table.

"The Broble?" Rachel asked. "What is that, exactly?"

He scoffed. "It's a guy thing, so I can't tell you much about it. But basically it's the Bible but it's for the bro-code."

Rachel let out a sigh and rubbed her forehead as she sat next to Tobias at the table, she was wishing that she didn't ask.

"Anyway," Marco continued. "The verse about not insulting another man's grilling is right there in Dude-eronomy, right around the end I believe. It's one of the last few verses if I'm remembering it right. I'll lend you a copy if you need one, Jake. Just make sure that you don't let Cassie see it, you'll have to hide it from her." Marco kept talking as we all sat and passed out the food to everyone except Erek.

"Good luck with that." Rachel said to Marco and Tobias under her breath. "Jake can't hide anything from Cassie, she's seen everything of his already, in full detail." The three laughed and tried not to die as mine and Cassie's faces went a shade of pink. I can't believe that Rachel just said that, wait, actually I can. This is Rachel we're talking about, nothing for her is all limits.

"Can we please not talk about that, Rachel? Especially since we're about to eat and all?" Rachel gave me a look then sighed.

"Fine." She mumbled. "Just this once I'll be nice."

"Can you all stop talking so you can try my burgers and dogs?" Asked Marco. "I tried a new recipe for the burgers so let me know what you think." He reached for a sauce next to him and handed it around.

"Make sure you guys use some of this on the burgers, it'll help give it more flavor."

We all exchanged looks at the table as soon as he turned back to the grill. None of us were expecting anything more than a regular backyard grilled burger, god were we wrong.

I took the first bite. As the burger met my taste buds I felt my mind explode from the flavor. Even if I live to be a hundred I am sure that I will never forget the taste of that burger.

"Oh my god." I muttered before I took another bite. "It's amazing." The others noted my reaction and all dug in. One by one everyone's eyes widened as their taste buds entered bliss.

I looked down to the delicious burger in my hands to try to find the secret to it's wonderful taste. It looked like your average burger, a large patty with a small, soft bun, one slice of tomato, several leaves of lettuce, some pickles and red onions. The only thing different about how it looked were the potato chips in it and the two different kinds of melted cheese on the patty. Marco even put those large toothpicks through the center of the burgers as well. How in the hell did he manage to shove so much flavor into this burger? I had no idea that he could even make burgers, and now I'm finding myself speechless when eating them.

The others quickly scarfed their burgers down, not even worrying about appearance, everyone had ketchup and mustard on their faces. Tobias even had the juices from the burger rolling down his face. You don't even want to know what Ax looked like, he devoured his burger in three seconds flat. He must have broken a land speed record to be able to eat it so fast.

"How in the hell did you make these, Marco?" Rachel asked, grabbing for another burger. "What did you do, lace them with crack?"

"I wouldn't doubt it, these are amazing." Tobias agreed. He attempted to use a napkin to wipe Rachel's face but she swatted his hand away, there was no way that anything would get in the way of her eating these burgers. She didn't care if it ruined her diet and she gained weight, these burgers were worth it.

Marco poked his head from the side of the large grill and let out a grin. "What?" He asked. "These are nothing special, just something I threw together in short notice. Since Cassie here didn't give me a big heads up that she'd need me to make lunch."

I turned to Cassie, she had only eaten a small bite so far. Her stomach has been acting up lately, she's been having to be careful what she eats for the past few months.

"Sorry about that, Marco." She said. "I came up with the idea when Jake was out of the room, sorry that you didn't have that much time."

He smirked. "You should just be happy that I already had some coal at stuff at home, since you didn't have any here. I had to run to the store and buy everything in twenty minutes."

"Wait," I asked. "You guys planned this earlier when I was downstairs? That was only an hour ago, you planned all of this in that short amount of time?"

"You should be thanking chef Marco over there, he bought, planned and cooked all the food here. It's all amazing."

"You can say that again." Rachel added. "Say what you want about Marco, he may be annoying as hell but the guy can make a burger."

"I heard that." Marco said from behind a wall of smoke. "There nothing special really, see, the secret to a perfect burger is the patty. I find that an 80/20 ground chuck patty is the best. The twenty percent is the fat content, the fatter the patty the juicer it'll be. It may not exactly be healthy but if you're going to eat a burger then it might as well be good."

He removed the last of the burgers from the grill and placed them on the table, sitting in the last open seat.

"Before you get to far you need to make a thumbprint in the center and make a deep depression, it prevents the patty from puffing up and bulging at the center."

"What kind of spices and herbs did you use?" Rachel asked. "I gotta know."

Marco smiled. "I actually only ever use salt and pepper. If you use a bunch of herbs, spices, garlic, onions and the like then that's meatloaf, this is a burger."

Rachel downed her second burger and reached for another, Marco happily handed her one, while not being able to get a single bite in himself yet.

"Let me guess what you're thinking, Rachel." He said. "You're probably kicking yourself about not hooking up with me earlier, aren't you? If you would've just agreed to date me then you'd be eating this everyday, but of course, you said 'no'. Several times, every day for a month straight, actually. But that's what you get for being so mean to me over the years, you have to live with the fact that Melissa is the one who gets to enjoy my cooking every time we have a date at home." I sent my best bud a look.

"You're really serious about her, aren't you?" He nodded his head like a bobblehead.

"Of course, man. She's amazing. She's hot, funny, smart, loves my cooking and most importantly she's finally learning to get my sense of humor. She actually laughs at my jokes now. I wouldn't believe it if I haven't been living it myself."

Rachel paused momentarily from eating and looked to Marco.

"Are you telling me that you actually cook for her? You make her stuff like this?" She asked, holding the burger up.

"Of course." He replied. "I cook dinner every night we have a date at my house. Since my old man is always staying late at work and Nora pretty much leaves me alone whenever I invite Melissa over we pretty much have free reign of the house. She comes over at works on her homework as I work on dinner. It's normally nothing too grandiose, but whenever there's something big I pull out all the stops."

"That explains it." Rachel said in between bites. "That's why Melissa's so crazy about you. She's addicted to your cooking, that's how you managed to convince her to go out you." The group including Erek laughed as Marco gave a fake hurt expression.

XxxxxXxxxxX

We ate for awhile and Rachel downed about seven or eight burgers before Tobias managed to convince her to stop. She actually managed to out eat Ax for once, he was only able to eat five burgers before he got full. We talked about everything and nothing for awhile, mostly school and the others wondering how I've been doing. I noticed Erek's expression, he had the look like he had something to say.

"What's up, Erek?" I asked as I turned in my chair to him. "You look like you have something to say."

"That is because I do." He replied. "I know that you're all having a good time and all and I'm sorry to ruin it, but the intention for this gathering at first was to go over our information with you to bring you up to speed with the war and our standings thus far."

The atmosphere of the group changed hearing Erek's words. He was right, now wasn't the time for celebrating, now was the time for action. From what I've pieced together, the Yeerks are stepping up their game considerably. Toby was right, this world, every free people in the universe needed me. Now was the time for the leader of the Animorphs to return and make a stand. The Yeerks will quickly learn to fear me once again.

I silently rose from the table and cleared the space in front of me and Erek placed the stack of papers and data files before me. I stood before my friends, my family, my army. I stood stoically at the head of the table, one by one my friends each looked to me and nodded. They were with me. Good, if my plan were to work then I'd need every soldier I could get my hands on.

XxxxxXxxxxX

I read over the dozens of pages of reports, statistics, data logs and inventory lists. It took awhile but I managed to wrap my head around our situation, I needed to know everything that there was to know about the Yeerks plans and developments. The sheer amount of pressure and information would've crippled the average man, but with my now five years of practice and experience I was able to go through it and come up with several plans and ideas within three hours. In that time Cassie's parents came home, they saw that we were having a good time, at least to them it looked like it, so they left us alone. The good thing about being adults is that our parents now gave us our space.

I raised my head from the stacks of papers and looked to Cassie, she wasn't going to like what I was going to suggest, and honestly, I had a few problems with it too, but I've thought over our options, this was the best bet. Now to convince my friends and all parties involved as well.

"I've come up with a plan." I said boldly. "It consists of multiple steps and teams all working together in unison, so it'll be tricky, but I believe that it's our best bet to change the direction of this war in one fell swoop."

The group looked to me to continue. "In all honesty it's bold, dangerous, slightly insane and may be considered unethical and even evil. If we win this war then we may never be forgiven for what we're about to do."

* * *

***Author's Note***

Thanks for reading, sorry for the late upload, my week was really busy and when I had time to work on it yesterday my internet decided to keep going out, most likely from the blizzard going on outside. Anyway, please let me know what you think of this chapter with a **Review**. Please **Follow** and **Favorite** both this story and I, it really helps out and really makes my day.

Next chapter will go out next weekend.

Thanks, HephaestusBuilds


	9. Ch9: Marco: The Plan

Chapter 9: Marco: The Plan

***Author's Note***

Thanks for reading. Please leave a **Review** , **Follow** and **Favorite** , it really helps. Sorry for not uploading a chapter last week, I was having some problems with FF and couldn't work it out. A thousand apologies.

If you have any ideas for the story please let me know with a **Review**. I take all constructive criticism.

Please check out Nerdiest999's original story over on Wattpad entitled: **Sci-Fighters**. It is a new ongoing series that I recommend for anyone who's looking for a new story to follow along with as it's being written.

Thanks for listening to my babble, now for what you've been waiting for…

XxxxxXxxxxX

Chapter 9: Marco: The Plan

"I've come up with a plan." Jake, our fearless leader said rather boldly. "It consists of multiple steps and teams all working together in unison, so it'll be tricky, but I believe that it's our best bet to change the direction of this war in one fell swoop."

We all looked to him to continue. "In all honesty it's bold, dangerous, slightly insane and may be considered unethical and even evil. If we win this war then we may never be forgiven for what we're about to do."

"Sounds like my kinda mission." Rachel, our local psychopath muttered with a laugh.

"I knew that she'd say something like that." I said as I elbowed Tobias in the arm. "Leave it to Rachel to enjoy the ultra violent and dangerous."

Jake gave her and I a disappointed look. "This is a serious discussion, Marco, Rachel. I'm not just suggesting some little attack on a Yeerk building or saying that we try to steal another ship or two. If this plan succeeds then this will be the biggest blow that we have ever struck against the Yeerks. This mission may very well decide and dictate the flow and outcome of this war. If we manage to succeed then we very well may be one step closer to finally beating the Yeerks and kicking them off our planet. Not only that but this mission may lead to us finally being able to defeat them once and for all."

"So what's the plan?" Tobias asked.

"Yeah, I'm curious, sounds like a doozy. Xena's practically drooling over there in anticipation." I added.

"I told you to stop calling me that, Marco." She hissed.

"Well if you'd stop acting like her than I'd stop calling you her." I shot back.

"I don't see what Melissa sees in you, I just don't." Rachel mumbled.

"Well that's easy, it's my overwhelming charm, charisma and without a doubt my-" I was cut off by a very angry Jake who slammed his hands on the table, silencing the group.

"Will you two cut it out?" He stood up from his seat and seemed to tower over us, very un-Jakelike. "I just said that this is serious. We don't have time to mess around. Time is _not_ on our side. Every moment that we waste listening to you two bicker the Yeerks are _that_ much closer to winning this war."

He let out breath as he calmed down. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled." He said as he sat. I shot Cassie a look that he didn't see.

"But what I said is true. The more time that we waste the more powerful the Yeerks become. According to these new numbers from Erek's spies, anywhere from five hundred up to a thousand new involuntary hosts are taken each day nationwide. That means that in a month's time the Yeerks will gain anywhere from 15,000 up to 30,000 new human hosts. And from these notes it seems that with every new host they become that much stronger. These numbers will without a doubt only rise each day. And the only thing there stopping the Yeerks and the eventual fall of Earth... is us." He finished as he gestured to everyone at the table.

"We are the last line of defense for not just our people and our planet but all those free species and planets in the galaxy. I came to terms with this when I did the Walk of the Seer with Toby. It helped show me the bigger picture, it showed me what _we_ have to do." He said solemnly. We each slightly lowered our heads upon hearing his words. We all knew it yet, it was just hard to swallow.

He continued. "If we fall, then not just the Earth but all other planets will fall to the Yeerks. We have the burden, the responsibility falls on all of us here to put a stop to the Yeerks. The Gedds, Hork-Bajir, Arn, Skrit Na, Hawjabran, Mak, Nahara, Ongachic, Orff, Sstram, they all failed and were either enslaved or eradicated by the Yeerks, and the Andalites failed as well." This received a look from Ax. He still liked to believe that they Andalites were still fighting the good fight. We had received word long ago from the Andalites that the Yeerks had attacked their homeworld and that they have been fighting them on and in the space around their planet ever since. Ax doesn't like to admit it but there is an all real possibility that the Yeerks may manage to defeat the Andalite army and take over of their planet. If that were to happen then no race, no planet would be safe from the Yeerks. The Andalites are the most advanced and most powerful race in this side of the galaxy. If they were to fall then the Yeerks would no doubt use their weapons and technology to conquer Earth as well.

"Tobias has previously updated me and told me about all of your missions that you have done since I left. And not to be rude to him, as he has done an amazing job in leading you all these past six months, but you have all become _timid_ in my eyes." He nodded to Tobias giving him an understanding look, he didn't blame him. Jake blamed himself for our current position,.

"Tobias tells me that you do only about two or three missions a month now, and that your last successful mission was over four months ago. You all failed to stop the Yeerks plan to set up a new Kandrona in the city next to ours." He sighed and gave us all an understanding look this time.

"But that is to be expected, you can not fight a war with only four soldiers, that's just an impossible feat. We were barely able to manage to hold them back with six." He looked to Erek and gestured to him.

"It is thanks to the Chee and the free Hork-Bajir that we have managed to get this far. We may be small in number as well in size but we are not small in spirit. This war we fight is unlike all other wars fought on Earth. We aren't just fighting for money, land, resources or just for the hell of it. We are fighting for our very planet. If we fall then the Earth falls as well. No other army in history has ever had this burden, this weight on our shoulders that we all share. And I for one can say that we have not always admitted that fact. It is a crap hand in all honesty. I know of no one who would ever want this responsibility that we all shoulder. We may fight it, run from it, hide from it and curse it, but no matter how hard we fight, how far we run, where we run or how much we simply wish it not to be, this war is ours and ours alone." Jake lowered his head and I could see his eyes start to well up when he talked about not being able to run from this, he hated himself for his actions in this war but he hated himself more for not doing anything.

"Jake, it's okay." Cassie said as she grabbed his hand and rubbed it comfortably with the other. I don't know if the others noticed Jake almost cry in front of us but I know that her and I sure did.

"What I'm trying to say is that this war is exactly that, a war. And that is why I'm suggesting this plan. Normally I would never want to do something this outright unethical but sometimes in war, when the situation calls for it, we must be able to cross that line."

The seven of us sat in silence for a few moments taking in Jake's words. I'm sure that we were all curious to hear his plan.

"So Jake, what's this plan of your? From what you're saying it sounds like we're going to do something and go farther than we ever have before." Tobias said, breaking the silence.

Jake nodded to him.

"Yeah, in all honesty we may be branded as monsters after this war if we manage to win it."

Ax chimed in.

"What is the plan, Prince Jake?" He asked.

Jake sat up straighter in his chair and let out a heavy sigh.

"The first stage of the plan is a lot like Rachel's rash plan when she was filling in for me when I was out of town a few years ago. We will split into several teams and attack several known Yeerk buildings and bases. Visser Three believes that we have started to give up on this war, I want to show them that we will not give up until the earth is free. They know that the Andalites are no longer able to help us, so they believe that they have already won." He took a breath.

"I want to prove them wrong. They have lost their fear of us. As we stand now we aren't even making a dent in their invasion plans. My goal is that by the end of the mission that the Yeerks, as well as Visser Three himself will once again learn to fear us. I want every controller to become afraid when they see even a single pigeon. We will strike them from all sides and in various morphs, they have become all too familiar with our battle morphs. If we change our morphs, our weapons, then they will never know where we are or where we're coming from."

I raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, I knew that he wasn't finished.

"If we attack them on multiple fronts and with the help of a little Chee holograms we can make them believe that there are not six of us but six hundred."

Rachel whistled.

"Six hundred, now that'd be nice. But even with the Chee helping us with holograms how are we going to be able to convince them that there's even half that many of us? What, are we going to try adding some new people to the team?"

I was taking before I had time to think.

"Nuh uh. No way Jose. There is no way we're trying that again, we can't risk another David." The group became silent when I said his name, all eyes shot to Jake in unison. He seemed not to react when I said his name. I was an idiot, I should've known better than to say his name.

Rachel punched me in the arm, hard.

"You idiot, for once would you think before you open your mouth?"

I was going to say something back but Jake spoke up.

"It's fine, Rachel. I'm fine." he looked to Cassie and she gave us a reassuring look. If she agreed then we had nothing to worry about.

"But I agree with what Marco said. We just can't risk another David. We can't put that much trust in total stranger's hands. We need to be careful who we choose to fight alongside us. At first I considered having the free Hork-Bajir use the morphing cube, but I quickly realised that they wouldn't be much help in morphs. The Hork-Bajir are too simple minded to be able to comprehend and think about being inside the body of another creature. Let alone be able to fight as one." He let out another heavy breath.

"We will have to pick our new members wisely, we can't rush this. First of all we have to make sure that whoever we choose isn't a controller. Second, we have to make sure that they will join the fight and will be able to be a part of our team. So here's what I'm suggesting we do about finding new members" He said.

"We will go to of the Yeerk Peace Movement and gather all of the Yeerks and voluntary controllers that we can. Once we get them together we will have all of the Yeerks leave their host bodies and enter our own version of a Yeerk Pool. Once all of the Yeerks are safely in the pool and out of their hosts we will give all willing hosts the option to join us. If they chose to fight with us then we'll give them the power to morph and they will become a part of our team."

"What are we going to do with the Yeerks that agree to this? Just keep them in their Pool?" Tobias asked.

He nodded in reply.

"Yes, we will provide them with protection until this war is over. And when it is over we will allow all of them in the YPM to use the Morphing Cube and become a nothlit."

"Become a nothlit? What makes you sure that they'll agree to that?" Tobias asked.

"Well the Yeerks say that they are enslaving all of these races so that they will be able to experience the world like we do, right?" Jake asked.

He continued.

"They would have no other choice really. Once this war is over they wouldn't be allowed to go back to their hosts."

We all shook our heads hearing this. It was a risky strategy but we needed the sheer numbers to be able to win this war.

"What's the second part of your plan? You said that there were two parts." Rachel asked.

Jake nodded his head.

"The second phase of my plan will be right after the first. After we attack the Yeerks from all sides and they're still trying to figure out what happened we'll attack the Yeerk Pool head on."

This received various looks from the group. From a sociopathic glee from Rachel to a concerned look from Cassie.

"Are you sure that that's a good idea, Jake?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah I gotta agree with prego over here, the Yeerks are more powerful than ever now, how are we going to be able to do anything to them? Every time we go down into that hell hole we barely make it out alive." I said.

"Prego?" I heard Cassie ask quietly.

"I am guessing that you have some sort of ulterior plan in attacking the Pool head on, right, Jake?" Erek asked from behind his hologram.

"Is there some ulterior reasoning for attacking them like that?" Tobias asked.

Jake nodded his head.

"Yeah, there is. While most of us are gonna be keeping the Yeerks busy and wreaking havoc, Erek, some other Chee and Ax are going to break into their control rooms and hack their systems. While in their system we will gather all of the information we can."

"Is that it?" Erek asked. Jake shook his head.

"No, that's only one of the objectives." He turned to Ax.

"Ax, if we got you into their computers would you be able take control of their orbiting satellites from there?"

"Are you referring to the orbiting satellites that the Yeerks have orbiting in the upper atmosphere around this planet?" He asked.

"Yeah the ones that they set up with dracon cannons to shoot any enemy ships coming into or out of our atmosphere."

Ax rubbed his chin for a few seconds thinking.

"If they are set up through the same system then I should be able to without much problem. The only problem would be that their systems for the orbiting satellites would be highly secured. It may take some time to be able to break the security code."

Ax looked to Jake.

"For example, the security codes for the orbiting security satellites around the Andalite homeworld could be anywhere from a dozen numbers to a hundred numbers long. It would take me hours to go through all of the possible combinations by myself by hand."

Jake put his hand to his mouth in a thinking position, he sat motionless for a few seconds.

"Would you be able to get in if Erek runs the numbers for you? Surely your processor would be able to break that code in minutes, right, Erek?"

Erek smiled and let a small chuckle.

"You grossly underestimate me, Jake. I can break any code under a million characters in a few seconds. I can crack that code and get Ax here into their system before they can even realise we're there."

Jake nodded.

"Good, my plan was relying on you guys being able to take control of their orbiting satellites."

"So what's the plan once the brainiacs get into the computers? Are they going to be using the guns on the satellites?" I asked Jake.

"Yeah, once they get into their systems Ax will use their orbiting cannons to take out as many Yeerk facilities and most importantly ships as he can until we have to leave."

The entire group almost gasped.

"Wait, are you saying that we're going to shoot the Yeerks' buildings from space?" Cassie asked, sounding a little concerned.

"That's the idea, Cass." Jake said.

"This is what I meant by unethical and stepping over a line. Not only will we be firing on their ships but we'll be attempting to destroy both of the buildings that house the Kandronas, their community building, their various storage and aircraft facilities but the Pool itself." He said this with a straight face, we all looked to him and expected him to say it was a joke, but it never came. He was serious, he wanted to take them out in one fell swoop.

Cassie grabbed his arm and turned to him.

"Jake, how can you suggest that? Shooting at the Yeerks is one thing but there are innocent people in the EGS building and the community center. Let alone the Pool, what about all of the hosts? Are we just going to kill them? And what about the school and the mall? The Pool stretches under half of the town, we would have to shoot through the school in order to hit the Pool. We can't do that."

I smiled at this, Jake may be our leader and all but if Cassie has something to say about something he said she says it.

Jake gave her a reassuring look.

"I know that, Cass. I've spent a lot of thought on this. I am well aware of the risks, and be rest assured that we will do everything in our power to protect the civilians as well as the hosts in the Pool. Let me clarify, we're not going to be firing on the Pool from space, we're going to be blowing it from the inside."

I raised an eyebrow at this.

"And how exactly are we going to be doing that, oh fearless leader? Because the last time I checked I don't have a bomb big enough to take out their whole Pool."

He gave me a questioning look.

"You guys have all those Yeerk explosives, right? You have crates full of them in the Hork-Bajir valley, right?" He asked.

"Oh yeah, those. I forgot about those. We've never used those." I said.

"Unfortunately, Jake. Pretty much all of those are small, hand held explosives, it would take much more than we have to be able to blow the entire Pool at once."

"Ah." Jake said as he began to think again. He sat for a few seconds before he thought of something. I swear that you could see the lightbulb over his head.

"Hey Ax?" He asked as he turned his attention to him.

"Yes, Prince Jake?" Ax asked.

"What would happen if we mixed the contents of the Yeerk Pool with say, calcium phosphide?"

"Calcium phosphide?" Rachel asked. "That's used in explosives, right?"

"Sort of, it's used in incendiaries. Incendiaries aren't technically explosives, they use ignition rather than detonation." Jake said casually, this received looks from the group.

"Why do you know that, Jake? You some kind of arsonist?" Rachel asked.

Jake laughed.

"No, but I've been reading up on my warfare, explosives are just a part of it." He looked to Ax to answer his previous question.

"Well if you add calcium phosphide to either acid or water it will release phosphine, which is toxic and can cause explosions in air. Phosphine attacks the central nervous system, it can either be absorbed via being breathed in through the lungs or through the skin."

Erek gave a concerned look to Jake.

"What is your plan, Jake? Why are we talking about deadly, explosive chemicals?"

Jake turned to Erek before glancing at each one of us.

"Have you ever heard of Greek Fire?"He asked.

"Yes I have, Jake. I've never seen it in person though." Erek replied.

"What's Greek Fire?" Cassie asked.

Jake answered her.

"It was a type of very volatile and powerful incendiary. The Greek navy would use it to set enemy ships on fire. It was a type of early flamethrower."

"A flamethrower on the ocean, that seems like it wouldn't work to me." I said. Jake smiled.

"That's where this fire is special, Marco. While we don't exactly know how to make it, it was a combination of several chemicals including calcium phosphide, that when it reacted with water it would set the top of the water ablaze. There is no known way of putting out the fire either, it was a devastating weapon." He said.

"Okay, so what?" Rachel asked.

"So I was thinking of making a sort of improved and more powerful form of Greek Fire that reacts with the sludge in the Yeerk Pool, causing it to ignite and explode on contact. If all works out then not only the Yeerks on the top of the 'water' but the ones on the bottom of the Pool would be killed as well. They would be either boiled or burned alive." Without a breath he turned to Ax again.

"How many Yeerks would you say are in the Pool at one time?"

"The average Yeerk Pool could house around two or three million Yeerks in their hostless bodies at any given time." He replied quickly.

"Good. Then if we manage to set off a few of these Greek Fire Bombs then we could take out up to three million Yeerks in an instant. On top of that, with the destruction of the two Kandronas the Yeerks would be unable to ship every Yeerk to the Poolship in order to feed. In the course of a week we could potentially kill off several million Yeerks. Not only that but if we also use the orbiting dracon cannons to take out their ships then we could take out the Poolship or even Visser Three's Bladeship as well. All in all, if this mission goes to plan then we could potentially cripple the Yeerks for months, maybe even years." We all sat around the table with our mouths on the floor. Hearing Jake talk like that was not something we were used to. Jake had always rathered avoiding a move like that. I for one was a little concerned, he had thought of all of this in only a little over an hour. On top of that he had to digest all of the information and data we gave him. I would never understand how his mind is able to process all of that information on top of coming up with plans at the same time. He came up with this entire plan so quickly. A plan that could very well turn the tide of this war.

"Before we go any further Prince Jake, I just want to let you know that we would not be able to completely wipe out the Yeerks so easily. They would surely have fall back measures. Not only that but they no doubt have several other bases set up in the surrounding cities that we do not know about. We may be successful in clearing them out of this city but they would surely flee to another." Ax informed us.

"I am well aware of that, Ax, thanks." Jake said.

"I know that it'll take a lot more than that to get rid of them for good. But if we manage to do this then we could very well get rid of most of the Yeerks in our city. And from there we would only step up our plans and our game and start striking bigger and more powerful blows to the Yeerks." He said. We all looked at him with blank expressions again. We sat in silence before someone raised an objection.

"But Jake, don't you think that that's going a little too far? I mean, the Yeerks are sentient, they have rights too. We just can't go and kill three million Yeerks at once. We shouldn't even kill any of them." Cassie of course.

"Rights?" Rachel nearly screamed. "They lost their rights when they decided to invade and enslave our planet, Cassie. They don't get the option of us being nice to them. They are our enemy, and as our enemy we have the right to kill them."

"I know that they're our enemies but we just can't go around killing innocent-" I cut her off.

"Don't you dare call them innocent, Cassie. They are _invading_ our planet. They want to _enslave_ our entire planet. Not a single Yeerk outside of the YPM is innocent, and that's debatable." I said, my voice raising as well.

"I know that, but we just can't go around killing people. It doesn't matter if their a Yeerk or not." Cassie added.

"But we have no choice, Cassie." Rachel said. "If we don't do this then the Yeerks will take over our entire planet."

"No choice? We always have a choice whether to take a life or not." Cassie said.

"I'm sorry Cassie, but I gotta agree with them. We need to stop the Yeerks no matter what, and if this is the best way than we have no other choice." Tobias said, getting into the conversation.

"Yeah but-" Cassie started but was interrupted by Jake.

"Let's put it o a vote, we've had this conversation before many times. We'll get nowhere if we keep talking about it."

We all nodded in the group.

"Who votes that we go forward with the plan?" He asked.

I, Rachel, Tobias and he raised our hands. Ax raised his hand as well when he saw what Jake voted for.

"All opposed?" He asked.

Cassie and Erek raised their hands.

"I still think that we should try to find another way, but if you all think it's best then I'll go along with your decision." Cassie said with a sigh.

"I was programmed against violence, I can not agree with harming lives, but I will not stand in your way either. I will help you as much as I can but I will not be able to pull the trigger." Erek said.

"Sounds good then, we're in agreement. We'll proceed as planned. I'll keep you all up to date with the plans."

He stood to leave the table when Cassie stopped him.

"Hold on, Jake. Before you go there's one more thing that we need to do. More specifically you." He raised an eyebrow at this.

"And what's that?" He asked.

"You need to try morphing again, Jake." she said sweetly. She almost always talked that way to him.

"Why?" He asked. Rachel cut it before Cassie could answer.

"Because you're out of shape, Jake, that's why. You haven't morphed in six months, you need to get back into the swing of things before you go on any mission."

"That's, true. You need to get used to it again. Come on, I have the perfect morph for you to try to ease you back into it." We all headed to Cassie's barn to check out whatever new horrid morph was bound to be waiting for us.

XxxxxXxxxxX

***Author's Note***

Thanks for reading, please leave a Review, Follow and Favorite, it means a lot and really helps me out.

Thanks, and until next time this has been Hephaestus.


	10. Ch10: Marco: A Morphing Mishap

Chapter 10: Marco: A Morphing Mishap

***Author's Note***

Hey guys, sorry for the super late upload, I was deathly sick over the weekend and spent most of it sleeping and trying to get my brain not to explode from my headaches. Now that I think about it staring at a bright screen for hours at a time probably didn't help much either.

Anyways, thanks for reading and please leave a **Review** , **Follow** and **Favorite** , it really helps.

I have been meaning to ask this for awhile but, are you guys enjoying this story? Because to me it seems that you aren't. This is almost tied for my lowest viewed story, next to my Animorphs one shot about Marco joking around and making fun of Jake's manhood. In the past two weeks that story has gotten 13 views and this one has gotten 24. And this one is an ongoing story. I also haven't gotten any Reviews or feedback on this story since April 3rd, and that person left all but one of the Reviews I had gotten for that story.

So here's what I'm asking, do you guys still like this story? I know that people are reading it after I upload a new chapter but I am getting no feedback on it. So please, please please please, leave a Review and tell me what you think of this story. I am sorry for not uploading a new chapter last week, life got busy and work was terrible. I apologize for that, I really do. So please, show me some support for this story so I keep writing it, because right now I'm not so convinced that I should. I want to but when I get no one saying that they like it, it is real demoralizing. It makes me want to drop the story.

Please forgive my rambling and enjoy the chapter, let me know what you think with a **Review**. Hephaestus.

XxxxxXxxxxX

Chapter 10: Marco: A Morphing Mishap

"So lemme get this straight, you want Jake to morph into a Ninja Turtle?" I asked Cassie as we all stood around in a circle around a half aquarium half terrarium sort of thing in her barn, AKA the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. Where she had brought us all along to show us a new morph for Jake to try out. We figured beforehand that something easy to handle and calm was best to get him back into the swing of things but this, this was insulting him, and I'm fine with that. I made sure to use it to insult him myself.

"That's just sad, man." I said putting a hand on Jake's shoulder. "Your girlfriend doubts your ability so much that she picked _this_ to be your practice morph. That's gotta hurt."

Jake only let out a sigh but I took it as an okay to go on with my insults.

"I mean, we've all had those lame morphs that you just know that you'll never use but come on, this has got to be a new low, even for you, Jake."

"Oh don't you ever shut up, Marco?" Rachel, our local blonde supermodel asked me as she for some reason that was beyond me, hit me on my shoulder.

"So what is it?" Jake asked Cassie, completely ignoring that his best friend was just assaulted by a psychotic woman.

"Some kind of turtle?" He asked.

[Looks like a tortoise to me.] Tobias said from the rafters, once again in his feathery form.

Opening the top of the tank Cassie carefully picked up the turtle/tortoise thing and held it in her arms and out to Jake.

"It's a Box Turtle. An Ornate Box Turtle to be exact. This one is a male, they are slightly smaller than females. They are actually not naturally found around here, they are more common in the mid-west."

"You want me to morph this? Why?" Jake questioned her. He took the turtle from her arms carefully and cradled it like a baby. I was going to make a joke about that very thing when Cassie spoke up and ruined my perfect timing for the joke.

"Well I figured that an easy to control morph would be best to try after so long of not morphing. We needed a nice and calm animal, I couldn't think of a better one that fit." She said with the smile that she gets whenever she's geeking out over animals.

"Whatever you say, Cass. I'll give it a try." He announced and we all simultaneously took a step back giving him room and held focused on the turtle in his hands.

Jake stood holding the mostly motionless turtle in his hands for about a minute. The whole time he didn't move an inch or show the slightest sign of how he was doing. His breathing was uneven and slow. It seemed to me that he was having a hard time acquiring its DNA. I shot a quick look to Cassie next to me, she had the same concerned look on her face as I.

After a few more seconds his breathing steadied and I watched as the turtle in his arms started to show the signs of being acquired, it stopped moving entirely and became limp. As per usual. It took considerably longer than it should've but he was finally able to acquire it.

He let out an exhausted breath and carefully handed back the turtle to Cassie who put it back in its terrarium. I couldn't help but notice how tired he looked from simply acquiring the turtle. Once Jake closed his eyes in order to concentrate I gave another look to Cassie, she returned it and studied Jake carefully. She had seen how much of a toll it took on his body. Acquiring the animal was supposed to be the easy part, in this case at least, we were both concerned how he was going to handle morphing after we became winded from just that alone.

After a few steady breaths he seemed to ready himself.

"I'm ready, I'm going to try now."

We all watched for another minute, all the while we couldn't see anything happen. He wasn't morphing. I saw Cassie shoot a look to Tobias in the rafters who focused his powerful eyes on Jake in turn.

[Uh… I don't see anything guys, he's not morphing.] Tobias said from the rafters privately to all of us but Jake.

[Ax-man, do you know why he's having so much trouble morphing?] Tobias asked Ax.

[I do not, Tobias. Perhaps Prince Jake is just having difficulties concentrating.]

We were all now looking at each other now, it has been over two minutes already. The entire morphing process should've taken him just under that for a new morph like this. But he hadn't even started yet. Something was wrong.

[Maybe he didn't actually acquire the turtle, that could be it.] Tobias suggested to us. I doubted it though, I saw the turtle go limp, a clear sign that it had been acquired. That wasn't it, something was wrong with Jake.

[Wait, there it is.] Tobias announced. [The skin on his neck is starting to change. It's hardening.] We all looked to his neck and saw what Tobias was saying was true. Jake's skin was starting to harden and become a very dim golden brown color.

After about thirty seconds of us all letting out a sigh of relief and watching him slowly shrink, almost melt down to about a foot shorter than he normally stood, he suddenly started to slow, he had been going at a good pace for a bit but now his morphing process has almost stopped entirely.

In front of us stood Jake at just over five feet, his skin hardened and cracked, a dull golden brown color. His back starting to puff out, his spine stretching out from his body and forming a small shell. His fingernails beginning to form into claws seemed to freeze, half nails half claws. After slowing for a few seconds all changing to his body stopped, he had stopped mid morph, not even a quarter of the way there.

"Jake? Are you okay?" Cassie asked, placing a weary hand on his shoulder.

"It… it hurts, Cassie. It hurts. It's not supposed to hurt." His face was turned from me so I couldn't see before but when I looked his face was writhed with pain. His entire face was tensed, his eyes closed and his teeth clenched.

"What?" She asked, concerned. Without a word Jake continued his morphing process, but at high speed. His body began to shrink and shrivel. His back swelled and became bone-like.

"Aahhh!" He let out. He dropped to his knees and with one hand grabbed his chest and the other his back.

"Jake! What's wrong? What's happening?" Rachel asked.

[Jake, morph out man. Morph out!] Tobias yelled in our heads.

[Prince Jake? What is happening?] Ax asked, worry clear in his silent voice.

Cassie grabbed him and turned him to face her.

"Jake! Morph out! Jake?!" She screamed as he fell to the ground.

"It hurts! I can feel the bones moving! My spine feels like it's snapping!" He was curled up in a ball, his muscles tense and blood starting to drip from his mouth.

"What is going on? I thought that you weren't supposed to feel anything when you morph." Erek asked me, grabbing my arm. It hurt a bit as his arm was robotic.

"It's not. We've never had a problem with it before." I replied as I bent down to Jake.

"Ax, what's happening? Why is he hurting?" I asked.

[I do not know. The morphing process was specifically designed so that the user did not feel the process.] He replied quickly.

"Jake, please, morph out! Please!" Cassie cried as she tried to hold him but was unable when he began to flail and let out spasms of pain.

"Aaahhhh! Aahh! Fuck!" Jake was screaming and cursing on the floor. "Ax! Do something!" He shrunk another foot total and his morphing slowed again, almost to a halt. It was clear that he had no control over him morphing if it weren't already.

[Like what, Prince Jake? I do not know what to do.] Ax was getting a little frantic, not something that was common.

"You're the closest thing to an-" He let out a gasp of pain. "An expert on morphing here. Do something!" Jake was on the verge of screaming his lungs out, flailing on the ground.

"We need to calm him down before your parents hear him, think he's dying and come to check on us." I told Cassie, even though I had no idea how to help him.

Ax knelt down to him in an awkward motion.

[Prince Jake, I do not know… what should I do?] He asked. Jake griped his thin arm like a vice, pulling his four-eyed face to his own. Ax was clearly surprised and shocked at this. His eyes widened.

"Do something scientific! Do it now!" He screamed. His eyes bloodshot, spit flying from his mouth.

Scientific, Jake asked Ax to do something scientific. Normally for Ax that wouldn't be hard, be excels in the scientific. But right now was different. I saw the look on Ax's face when Jake said that. He raised his tail above Jake's head and held it there. Clearly his only idea wasn't very scientific.

[I apologize in advance, Prince Jake. Please do not hold it against me when you awake.] Ax said to him.

"Awake? Wh-" Jake began to ask when he was cut off when Ax whipped his tail blade and hit him over the back of the head with the blunt side of the blade. Knocking him out instantly.

Jake's unconscious body fell to the floor with a loud thump, his body still morphing, albeit very slowly, much more than before.

"Ax! What the hell?"Rachel demanded.

"Why did you do that? Now he can't morph out!" Cassie screamed, taking us all aback, she normally doesn't yell. But when it comes to Jake she's a feral animal.

[Get the Escafil Device! We only have a few minutes before his body succumbs to pain and his muscles and bones break from the pressure of morphing.] Ax almost yelled.

"What?" Rachel asked.

[Get me the Escafil Device now!] He roared. Ax almost never yells, but when he does you know to listen.

"You stay with him I'll get it." Rachel volunteered as she ran to get it. Several years ago we hid the blue box around the barn, only Cassie and Rachel knew where it was.

"What are you going to do Ax?" Cassie asked, still holding an unconscious Jake in her arms.

[Yeah, Ax-man, what's the plan?] Questioned Tobias.

[I am going to use the Escafil Device to force Prince Jake out of his morph.] Ax answered.

"You can do that?" I asked.

[I should be able to, but I must warn you that I have never done this before.]

Cassie turned to face Ax.

"But is it possible?"

[Yes, it is. This is the only way to physically force someone out of a morph. It is very risky but it is the only way.]

"How do you do it?" I asked.

[I must activate the Escafil Device as Prince Jake is morphing, it forces the body to demorph and regain its usual form.]

Rachel returned after a minute with the blue box, handing it directly to Ax who in return pressed a few of the sides in a quick combination before pressing the box onto Jake's bulging forehead.

Almost instantly a light blue glow came from the box which surrounded Jake's slowly shrinking form. We all let out a sigh of relief when we saw his body begin to grow and his skin start to regain his usual color. It took about a minute but Jake managed to fully demorph and became his usual self again. We all took a few steps in, surrounding him as he laid in Cassie's arms. It was a sight to see, Jake is a few inches over six foot, wide shouldered and muscular, while Cassie on the other hand is the exact opposite. Yeah she might be more muscular than any normal girl her age from all her time working with large animals and working around the barn lifting hay and the such but her body didn't really show it. She was more than a foot shorter than he and with him in her arms like that he seemed to dwarf her, he seemed twice her size.

XxxxxXxxxxX

Jake woke up after about twenty minutes, in that time Cassie was a nervous wreck. She was distraught, she was a mess. She was crying on Rachel's shoulder so much I worried that we would drown in the barn. It was really unsettling seeing her like that. Now, I've been told that during pregnancy women can get really emotional and when they do they can practically blow up. I do not know if this was one of those times or not but it was clearly obvious that she was the most worried among all of us, which I have to say is really difficult. Ax was a wreck as well for having knocked out his Prince. Something that he said would be shameful for any Andalite Warrior.

Also during that time Cassie's dad had happened to come out to the barn to check up on us and see how much longer we planned to say. We would've been screwed if Tobias, the legend that he is, didn't see him coming and had time to warn us so that he and Ax could morph human. Her dad came in and had the reaction that any decent parent and human being would have, he freaked out when he saw Jake unconscious in his daughter's arms.

"Wha… what happened to Jake?" He asked.

We managed to convince him that Jake had another panic attack, the second one after his first in the Hork-Bajir Valley. We also talked her dad Walter into not taking him to the hospital and got him to let Jake rest on their couch.

It took awhile but after awhile Jake woke up and we managed to go about our business like usual. Tobias and Ax left to their homes in the woods, Rachel left to go to the mall for some mega awesome super sale or something like that in order to buy Cassie some 'fashionable' maternity clothes. Let's just say that the only one excited about it was not the soon to be mother.

After everyone left it was just my handsome self, Jake and Cassie. And of course her parents were round the house as well. Her mom worrying for Jake almost as much as Cassie, if you could believe that. Jake woke up and naturally asked what happened when Cassie's parents left the room after we convinced him that he was fine.

"Wha- what happened this time?" He asked as soon as Cassie's parents left the room. "My head's killing me."

"Are you okay, Jake?" Cassie asked, concerned. She lightly grabbed his hand for comfort.

"Besides the fact that my heads throbbing and it feels like it's split it two? I'm fine, just a little concerned because this is not the first time that I've woken up not knowing where I am or what happened."

"You're fine now, Jake." She said sweetly to him. "Do you really not remember what happened?"

He thought for a few seconds before answering.

"I remember that we all got together to talk and go over the situation report. Marco made these really good burgers… uh, Erek gave us new information." He recalled very slowly.

"Anything else?" She asked him.

"Oh yeah." He said, snapping his fingers. "We went to the barn and you guys had me morph, right?" He asked as if he weren't really sure what he was remembering was true.

"Yeah, that's right. I had you acquire and morph a Box Turtle, do you remember that?" She asked.

"I remember wondering why you chose a Box Turtle of all things. I also remember talking about it and getting ready to but I don't remember actually morphing it. What, was there a problem when I morphed? Did something happen?" He asked in confusion.

Cassie gave me a concerned look, the same she gave me when we were in the Hork-Bajir Valley, before she quickly looked back to Jake who was giving her a questioning look.

"Yes there was, Jake. You weren't able to control the morph, you were out of control." I told him before she spoke up.

He gave a skeptical look.

"Out of control? I was morphed as a turtle the size of a big rock, how could I have been out of control?" He asked jokingly.

"Let me clarify, Jake." Cassie stepped in. "It was you that was out of control, kinda, it was the morphing process. You had no control while you were morphing."

She continued. "You couldn't control yourself while you were morphing. It… it hurt you, Jake. You said that you could feel your body morphing, you're not supposed to be able to feel anything. But you were screaming in pain."

"I was?" He asked, his eyes widening.

"Yeah, man, it was bad. You were screaming bloody murder." I said.

"Well what happened? How did I morph out? I don't remember anything." He asked.

Cassie looked to me to think of a subtle way of explaining it, man was that a bad idea, I don't do subtle.

"Ax knocked you out with his tail." I said as I made a knocking out motion with my hands and a whistling sound then a thud with my hands, mimicking him hitting the floor. Cassie shot me an angry look, apparently she didn't approve of me making fun of her boyfriends pain. Who knew?

"He what?" Jake asked.

"Ax knocked you out, Jake. He had to. There was no other way. You were in so much pain, you were bleeding. It was the only way so you wouldn't feel any more pain." She said as she hugged him. I turned my gaze slightly, it wasn't that I wasn't used to PDA in life, as I go to public high school and do a fair share of PDA myself, but seeing Jake and Cassie do it, even something as small as this… feels just weird.

"Hey, get a room, you two. I don't need to see this." I said with a laugh. Cassie was clearly not amused.

"Marco, this is serious. Jake was on the floor screaming in pain, doesn't that mean anything to you?" She demanded.

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to alleviate tension. Sorry. But you know me, Jake and I have been best buds since we were in diapers, there would be no way in hell that I wouldn't care about him with something like this." I defended myself.

"It's fine, you two. I know that Marco was joking. But that doesn't mean that he shouldn't learn when to keep his mouth shut." Jake said ending with a small smile.

"So what happened?" He asked, getting back on track with what we were talking about. "Why did my morphing suddenly go haywire?"

Cassie and I exchanged a few glances, we had no idea. She spoke up.

"We don't know, Jake. We asked Ax but he doesn't know. He believes that the only possible reason was that it was a mental thing. That your body, your mind couldn't concentrate and you ended up messing up our morph."

"Jake, I don't want to be the one to bring this up but I feel that I have to. I wouldn't bring it up if not." I said, getting his attention with my sudden serious tone in my voice.

"What if your problems with morphing is what Ax thinks it is? He believes that it is psychological, and I have to agree with him, we are _all_ pretty much in agreement in that." I took a breath before continuing.

"I know that you don't like to talk about it, but we have to for this conversation. I believe that your fears and regrets from what happened with David is causing this. You can't deny that, Jake. That day with him pretty much ruined your life, it F uped your mind, your mental state. I heard from Cassie and your parents, they told me how much of a mess you were the past six months, you can't deny that. Do you remember when we were in the Valley and you saw Yeerk explosives and Dracon Beams up close? You had a panic attack, Jake. At eighteen, you had a panic attack. Because of what happened that day you haven't been the same sense." Jake didn't say a word, he knew that I was right. While Cassie on the other hand didn't look to happen how I was talking but knew I was right too.

"And it should've been obvious to us that morphing would've been the same. It actually was, we expected there to be a problem so we picked the easiest animal to control .But we... didn't expect that to happen, not that. No one could've predicted that it would've gone so… wrong." I took a few breaths and kept talking.

"Back to what I was saying, we feel that it was a mental, concentration problem that led to you having trouble morphing. Ax said that in times of extreme stress or mental fatigue, it can mess with your ability to morph. We all know this too well."

Cassie jumped in.

"What we're saying Jake is that we think that we are partially to blame for this. We feel like we pushed you too fast to rejoin us. You were making excellent progress as you were, but we felt that we needed you, we do need you, but we think that we pushed too hard. You were not ready to rejoin let alone lead the team again." She said with sorrow in her voice.

"We- I, am sorry for pushing you to hard." She hugged him again in an instant and I didn't say anything about it this time.

"It's not your fault, Cass." He reassured her. "Or anyone's besides my own. I know what my weaknesses are, I know what I struggle with. I know what I need to do, what I need to become in order to be the leader that you and the earth needs. I know all that, I do, it's just that… even though I know it… my body, my mind… won't let me. I tried the other day to go out for lunch by myself, just Taco Bell, nothing too much. But before I could even get in the door I fell to my knees, I had made it all the way there but when I reached the door I saw someone who had the same hair as David… and I froze. My brain shut off, my mind went blank. I collapsed in the doorway." He turned away from Cassie's gaze, clearly she didn't know about this. She had tears in her eyes.

"I had another panic attack. Some old guy there happened to be a retired doctor and rushed to help me." He paused for a few seconds. "I woke up after ten minutes, screaming your name, Cass. Everyone there thought I was going crazy. I've never been so embarrassed in my entire life." He said with a light chuckle that Cassie didn't like.

"This is not funny, Jake. This is serious, you should've told me. You shouldn't have even gone out by yourself without me, who knows what could've happened? You could've had a panic attack in the middle of the street! Why would you do that? And being embarrassed, why do you care about that? So what that you had another panic attack, you went through a serious trauma, you know that." She said as she pulled away from him slightly, looking at his face.

"It's a problem because I shouldn't have been scared. I was scared of some fifteen year old kid who happened to have the same general hair style as David. I've stared down Visser Three for Christs sake! I've been in hundreds of battles throughout time and space, literally. I've stood next to god-like beings and the Ellimist and Crayak. I even blatantly pissed off the ladder by practically giving him the middle finger. I am Jake Berenson, leader of the Animorphs, the last line of defense against the Yeerks for the entire galaxy! I should not be brought to my knees by some punk kid or memories of David!" His voice raised with every word, he was yelling now. Not angry yelling at us, but with himself. He took a breath and calmed down a little.

"I am stronger than that, I gave to be. I just… have to be. You all, what would you do without me? Who would make those calls? The calls that determine life and death? Tobias? Rachel? They both tried, both failed, I am the only one that can lead us. I am the only one that can… shoulder the pain that we all feel. I don't want anyone of you ever having to feel the pain of this war. I have and will continue to shoulder it for you. You have my word on that." He finished with a low voice, tears in his eyes. It's always unsettling seeing someone like Jake cry. He was right in what he said, he's faced down some of the most powerful and dangerous beings in the galaxy and dared them to make a move. He's pissed of Crayak so much that he, a literal god-like being has a personal grudge against him. Jake has messed with his plans so much that in a way, he fears Jake. It's almost comical, a god-like being that can warp reality and wipe us all from existence is afraid of an eighteen year old guy.

Jake has always been like this, since the beginning. Always sacrificing his sanity and mind for us just so that we don't have nightmares from this war. He's always shouldered the burden of leadership all these years without a complaint. Until David returned that is.

"Jake…" Cassie said softly as she hugged him again. I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable, feeling like a third wheel. I could've sworn that if I had not been there she would've kissed him.

"It's okay. You don't need to take all of it anymore. We are all here for you, we can share the pain that you feel. What's happened to you since the beginning of this war has not been fair. Your life has been so messed up from it." She paused to wipe away a few tears.

"Your eyes… they haven't lit up like they used to since that night we met Elfangor. Since then you haven't been the same. Your eyes, whenever I look into them all I see is pain. You look so… old. Old and hopeless, like everything in your life is gone. You… you don't need to feel that way anymore, Jake. I am here for you, we are here for you."

Jake and Cassie cried for a few minutes as he tried to make it look like he wasn't in front of me, like I'd actually care in the moment. I know he F uped his life has been during the war. Even I couldn't make fun of him for it.

I excused myself not long after to give them sometime to talk and to get ready for my date with Melissa tonight.

XxxxxXxxxxX

***Author's Note***

Thanks for reading, please, let me know how you like this story so far and if you even like it with a **Review**. It would really help, thanks, Hephaestus.


	11. Author's Note

**Author's Note: 7/19/17**

Hey everyone, Hephaestus here to let you know what's going on.

As you know I haven't been putting out any chapters for this story in a while, since 5/29/17 actually, nearly two months ago. There are a few reasons for this, one in particular that I'm going to be talking about here.

That being that simply, I've pretty much lost my gumption to work on this story. I still do want to finish it for you guys, since this is the continuation to my first ever fic and I do have a lot of connections to it. However, the reason why I have stopped is because of a very simple reason: views. I hate to admit it but I do take views and reviews into consideration with my stories. The views simply aren't there, and haven't been there for awhile now, I can't remember the last time that I received a PM or review from someone besides Nerdiest999, who seems to be the only person enjoying this story.

I have talked to her many times and she wants me to finish this story as much as I but she seems to be the only one. I do have another story that I'm working on right now, one that honestly has a much wider audience. A story that I focus all of my time on now because I just don't think that anyone cares about my Animorphs series anymore.

But please, prove me wrong. I'm begging you, prove me wrong. Show support to bring this story back. PM me and/or leave a Review telling me that you like this story. I'll even take a 'Keep it up' or 'Hang in there' or a 'Just do it' right now. I want to finish this story but if only one person is reading it consistently on a weekly basis when I add a new chapter then it's not worth it.

Please, please please please, if you enjoy this story and want it brought back then you have only one thing to do: show your support. If you do then once I finish my Naruto chapter I will work on the chapter to try to get it out next week. But if I don't get any support for this story then I will simply discontinue it. I'd hate to do it but if the support isn't there then there's nothing I can do. If the problem is my story, my writing, the plot, characters or anything then please, let me know. I want to finish this story.

Remember, show your support, thanks, Hephaestus


	12. General Update

Hey everyone, just a (hopefully) quick update here,

I've been gone since, what, January? Jeez, I never meant to be gone this long, I promise. As you can probably guess from this update that I am now planning to continue writing again. I will be writing this general update for ALL of my stories so that is why it contains info for stories other than this one.

I have just updated my profile so if you want to see some of my ideas/plans go over there and check it out. I also go over some other stuff as well. Please give it a read.

* * *

A few answers to some questions:

Q: Am I done writing for good?

A: No, of course not. I couldn't stop even if I wanted to. Writing/reading/creating stories are too big a part of my life to quit.

Q: Will 'Animorphs' be continuing?

A: Yes, eventually. I want to finish 'A Mission Of Love' first.

Q: Where is the finale of 'A Mission Of Love'?

A: It is coming asap. I stopped it because I honestly didn't think I could give it a proper ending. I will be working hard to finish it.

Q: What will the new Upload Schedule be?

A: I don't have one set in stone yet, since I'm trying to get back into the swing of things but I do want to get out at least one chapter a month. But that may increase when I get into the rhythm again.

Q: What have I been doing since January?

A: Many things, mostly work but I did read the entire Harry Potter series and the first two Percy Jackson series. I won't be doing any stories for HP, sorry, but I will definitely be doing a Percy Jackson story/one shot asap. I also bought a new car, jeez, those things are expensive.

Q: When will we expect the new chapters/stories to be coming out?

A: I have no set day yet, but I do want to get these things starting by the end of August. I know that is a month away, but that's because my work basically works in seasons, Off seasons and On seasons. Right now we're at the end of the Off season but it will be starting up again in mid August. I do work year round, btw, my schedule just shifts twelve hours each season. Also my boss has been of the last two weeks so it's been hectic at work. We have a ton of work to do to get ready for the On season.

Q: May we still be extremely mad at you for going away for six months?

A: Of course, you guys are my readers and I had no right to do that to you guys. So thanks to all of you guys, especially my beta, for keeping on my butt and making me realise how stupid it was to wait so long to come back.

So that wraps up some common questions, if you guys have any, PLEASE, either leave a Review with it or PM me and I'll be sure to answer asap. Again, please check out my profile for more info and to check out some of my ideas for future stories. If you have any ideas please let me know.

Thanks you all so much for your undying support even though I don't always deserve it, you guys are the best. Have a great day and I'll see you guys as soon as I can.

Hephaestus


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